Mumbai: China has allowed private and even foreign participation in wholesale petroleum products business thereby breaking state monopoly in oil sector and opening its huge market to competition.

China's ministry of commerce (MOC) has released documents detailing guidelines to domestic and foreign companies on how they can apply to enter the crude and processed oil market in the country.

The rules offer a level-playing field to foreign and overseas-funded companies in the country's wholesale oil sector, the official China Daily reported.

The new guidelines lift restrictions on the number of gas stations a company could own as also lower the threshold for domestic companies.

The guidelines, based on two regulations issued by MOC last year aimed at breaking the monopoly of state-owed enterprises in the oil sector and opening up the market to overseas and domestic private competition, is in compliance with China's commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The country's two biggest oil firms, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), have a near monopoly in the country's wholesale crude market.