China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia's largest refiner, may hire more supertankers than Exxon Mobil Corp. for the first time this year to haul oil from as far as Angola and Venezuela.

A trading unit of the Chinese company became the world's second-largest charterer of very large crude carriers in 2006, lagging behind only Exxon, according to shipbroker Poten & Partners. Beijing-based China Petroleum, known as Sinopec, was third in 2005 and 10th in 2004.

China, reliant on imports for almost half its oil, bought a record amount of crude in March from the Middle East, Africa and South America to supply the world's second-largest automobile market. Chinese demand may boost earnings for Oslo-based Frontline Ltd. and Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., the largest operators of the vessels.

``We see China continuing to become a more important factor in the VLCC market,'' said Ole-Rikard Hammer, managing director at Oslo-based ship broker P.F. Bassoe. ``The Chinese will find it hard to keep up with growth in import demand.''

China International United Petroleum, the Beijing-based trading arm of Sinopec, hired 103 supertankers in the single- voyage, or spot, market in last year, up from 86 in 2005 and 56 in 2004, according to figures from New York-based Poten.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, hired 149 of the ships last year, 118 in 2005 and 134 in 2004.

China International is known as Unipec. VLCCs are each able to transport 2 million barrels of oil.

`Not Enough'

Reliance on foreign-owned vessels has prompted a shipbuilding program to enhance China's energy security.

``Chinese owners are trying to build up the fleets in order to match the charterers' requirements, but that's not going to be enough,'' Mathieu Philippe, an oil tanker broker in the Dubai office of Paris-based Barry Rogliano Salles. ``China is definitely a major player in the VLCC market.''

China may face a shortfall of coal and oil supplies as energy demand peaks this summer, Zhu Hongren, deputy director of economic operations at the National Development and Reform Commission said yesterday.

In 2001, the nation's shipowners didn't operate a single supertanker, forcing oil importers to contract vessels owned by Bermuda-based Frontline, Mitsui, and other overseas companies.

China Ocean

China Ocean Shipping Co. and China Shipping Group, the nation's largest ship owners, now have 13 VLCCs in service and a further 16 under construction. In total, China's state-owned shipping companies will have 36 supertankers by 2010, about 7 percent of today's global fleet.

China Ocean Shipping aims to more than double the size of its supertanker fleet by 2015, Meng Qinglin, managing director of Cosco Dalian, said at the Shipping Energy China 2007 conference in Shanghai yesterday.

Cosco, as the Beijing-based company is known, wants to own 40 two-million-barrel tankers, by 2015. Cosco Dalian is the unit that runs China Ocean Shipping's large tanker fleet.

``The huge market gap will stimulate the major shipping companies in China to expand their the fleets,'' Zhu Xinqiang, assistant president and board member of China Exim Bank, said yesterday at the conference. ``This may lead to fierce competition in oil transportation.''

Dictate Requirements

Oil demand growth in China and India, the region's fastest- growing economies, will dictate requirements for supertankers in Asia, said Kats Nishikawa, a broker at Tokyo-based Matsui & Co. That's because demand in the region's other major importers including Japan and South Korea is stable.

Supertanker rates on the benchmark route from the Persian Gulf to Japan rose 58 percent in the first quarter of the year before falling back this month as Asian refiners closed refineries for schedule maintenance work.

Several other Chinese companies have acquired fleets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Hebei Ocean Shipping Co. has four vessels and China National Foreign Transportation Group Corp., or Sinotrans, has two.

China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. has two ships under construction, while Nanjing Yangyang Chemical Transport & Trade Co. has a fleet of nine supertankers being built.

``Increasing China's fleet doesn't mean reducing its chartering activities,'' Barry Rogliano's Philipe said in a telephone interview. ``China will remain a major player for many years. There's no doubt about it.''