Rachel Hou/Shanghai Daily news

Many regional petrol station chains or independent operators in Shanghai have no gas to sell these days because two of the domestic oil giants, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Sinopec Corp, now supply gasoline and diesel fuel only to those stations owned by them, Monday's China Business News reported.
"We must ensure gas supplies to our own filling stations first and the intention isn't to cut supplies to other stations," said an official with Sinopec's Shanghai branch.
A trade insider said some independent gas-filling stations were well-stocked but refusing to sell for fear that "the more they sell, the more they lose".
His remark was confirmed by Jiang Jianbing, head of the oil product department of Shanghai Yunfeng Group. "Local wholesale prices of diesel fuel are now higher than retail prices," said Jiang.
Most of the city's 700-odd filling-stations are run either by CNPC or Sinopec. Other chains or independent stations number less than 100.