Chinese Tax Investigation Embroils State-Owned Oil Giant (1)

China is nearing the end of a two-year investigation into the oil industry that’s reverberated across the sector as it embroiled the biggest state-run company down to a host of smaller independent refiners.

The fuel oil unit of China National Petroleum Corp., the No. 1 oil company, was found to have irregularly sold 179.5 million tons, or 1.32 billion barrels, of imported crude to 115 private refiners, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late on Wednesday, citing unnamed government sources.

The violations started as early as 2006, when 400,000 tons of imported crude was sold to a Shandong-based processor ...