Meanwhile, diesel oil prices in Shangdong have only grown by 300 yuan per ton, and gas approximately 100 yuan. The source adds that management has been considering whether or not to stop production, since it will still be costly to do so—3 million yuan vanishes when medium or small-scale refining equipment restarts.

The Crisis Afterwards

No one can predict when the shortage will end. In the past two months, Changyi Petroleum & Chemical has dispatched more staff to purchase raw materials from major suppliers and domestic ports to beef up stockpiles should anything else go awry.

In October, the company obtained 100,000 tons of fuel oil from Singapore, which helped the company scrape through the predicament.But the high costs of recent purchases have not made things any easier.

"For our company, greater challenges come after the oil shortage rather than before it," Zhang says. During an oil shortage, refineries manage to limp along with low profits thanks to the overall insufficient market supply and stored supplies.

Afterwards, however, they meet with great losses, as demand and product oil price fall while the price of material purchased beforehand looms over them. By some counts, the company will lose 50 million yuan in November and December.

Experts say that the 500-yuan bump has been the most significant adjustment by the National Development and Reform Council todate. But it only amounts to an increase of 10 percent in crude oil price, still lagging behind the 25 percent in international crude oil prices that precipitated them.

Pressured by the oil shortage, more and more local refineries in Shangdong are calling for an end to the monopoly in the industry and a mechanism for fair competition so that they have access to independent crude oil purchasing and oil product sales.

The National Development and Reform Committee will have a third discussion with these refineries in November, which would punctuate negotiations that have occurred these past two months.

As a principal of one refinery says, unless the monopoly is broken and the retail price stays above costs, there will definitely be another round of oil shortages, and no refinery can promise to hold on when it comes.