A view of a refinery of Hengli Petrochemical Co in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province File photo: IC

Chinese firm Hengli Petrochemical Co has obtained a government certificate permitting it access to the aviation fuel market, media reported on Wednesday, making Hengli the first private enterprise to enter such a market. An industry expert commented that this will provide a new vitality to the previously monopolized aviation fuel market.

During a seminar in Beijing on Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued Hengli the approval document, formally declaring that the No.3 Jet Fuel produced by Hengli had passed its airworthiness test and would be put into commercial use, according to a report from jeimian.com.

Li Jian, deputy administrator of the CAAC, said at the seminar that the agency encourages and supports private capital and enterprises participating in the construction of the aviation industry, including public air transport, general aviation and aircraft maintenance, according to the report.

Granting private enterprises license to enter the aviation fuel market shows that industry regulators are open-minded and working toward making the resource allocation more market-oriented, Qi Qi, a Guangzhou-based industry market watcher, told the Global Times.

"It means that the aviation fuel market is more open to private enterprises now, which adds new vitality to the relatively monopolized market," Qi said.

On March 25, Hengli's refining and chemical integration project, which has a capacity of 20 million tons per year, officially began production of gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and other main products, according to jeimian.com.

As China's civil aviation industry has been developing at a rapid pace, aviation oil has maintained a high-demand growth trend in recent years. 

Aviation fuel is one of the important products in the petroleum industry, and is mainly used in aero-turbine engines.  For aero-turbine engines, gasoline is volatile and considered unsafe, and diesel's viscosity is too high to achieve satisfactory atomization effects in thin aircraft nozzles. 

Unlike gasoline and diesel, aviation fuel has a suitable density, high calorific value, good combustion performance, rapid, stable and continuous complete combustion, and less carbon deposition, according to Jeimian.com.

Thus far, China National Aviation Fuel Group Limited has been the main supplier of aviation fuel in China, and a major portion of what it provides is imported, Qi noted.

Citing experts' comments, the China Securities Journal reported that aviation fuel is directly related to the safety and reliability of aircraft engines, so its standards of production are much higher than those of oil products, so Hengli has reached the advanced production level.

"Allowing more private companies to access the aviation fuel market is a trend, but [granting permission to Hengli is only the first step. There is more work to follow in the future," Qi said.