Chinese refiners have suspended exports of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel for October, except to Hong Kong and Macao, to rebuild domestic stocks, Reuters reported, citing four people briefed on the matter. Beijing did not grant the major refiners—including state-owned PetroChina and the privately held Zhejiang Petrochemical—approval for October export cargoes, and PetroChina has canceled some gasoline and jet fuel shipments it had already committed. China exported 1.4 million tons of diesel, 500,000 tons of gasoline and at least 2 million tons of jet fuel in September. Beijing restricted fuel exports in March, after the war on Iran began, eased the curbs in July, and has since approved shipments month by month.

Domestic stocks are the reason. “Commercial gasoil and diesel inventories [are] sitting around 20 million barrels below that threshold, with gasoline roughly 9 million barrels short, so a pause on those products was likely,” Zameer Yusof of Kpler told Reuters. Michal Meidan of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said, “the government’s focus remains domestic supply security. International markets are an afterthought.” Brent crude rose 2.6% to $100.60 a barrel on Oct. 1, according to TheStreet.