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China's largest oil refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), has sold its first parcel of bunker fuel to a vessel in the Middle East, Bloomberg reports.

A 3,000-tonne cargo of fuel oil is reported to have been supplied to the vessel Yangtze Splendor at the port of Fujairah as part of a joint sales agreement recently signed with oil major BP Plc.

Sinopec's partnership with BP forms part of the Chinese oil firm's strategy of expanding its fuel business at home and overseas. Under the agreement, signed in August, BP will open its global bunker distribution network to Sinopec’s clients, while Sinopec’s network inside China will be opened to BP’s clients, said Zhou Yiqing, vice general manager of the bunker department at Sinopec Fuel Oil Sales Co.

“We bring our customers to BP and BP supplies the fuel using their facilities, and we share profits,” explained Zhou.

According to comments made last month by Paulo Cheng, sales director at Sinopec Fuel Oil Sales, Sinopec plans to increase its share of the domestic market for bonded (tax-free) bunker fuel to two-thirds by 2013.

Cheng said that bonded bunker fuel sales in China may double in size to exceed 20 million tonnes by 2015. The world's leading bunker port, Singapore, last year sold 40,853,000 tonnes and is on course to sell 42.6 - 43.0 million tonnes in 2011.