Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does this activity cover?
This activity covers the wholesale trade of refined oil products derived from refining crude oil, including fuel oil, heating oil, kerosene, lubricating oils and greases, base oils, paraffin wax, bitumen, and other refined output from the refining process.
2. Are diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, naphtha, and crude oil included?
No. Each of these falls under a separate activity within the same wholesale fuels group. Refined oil products trading covers the other refined output of the refining process, not the specific fuels and feedstocks carved out into their own activity codes.
3. What approvals are required before the license is issued?
Pre-approval from the Department of Petroleum Affairs (DOPA) is required before Meydan Free Zone issues the license. The activity is exempt from anti-money laundering compliance requirements, but DOPA's wider framework for petroleum trading applies.
4. Who are the typical buyers?
Typical buyers are wholesale market participants: regional fuel wholesalers, lubricant and grease blenders, packagers and manufacturers buying paraffin wax, bitumen wholesalers for construction, and other traders or downstream wholesale buyers of refined products.
5. Does this activity cover refining, storing, or distributing the products?
No. This license is for the trade of refined oil products. Refining crude, operating storage or bunker terminals, fuel distribution, and retail forecourt sales fall under separate activities. The trader's role is sourcing, pricing, financing, and arranging delivery between B2B parties.
How to Start a Refined Oil Products Trading Business with Meydan Free Zone
Somewhere in Dubai right now, a trader is on the phone closing a fuel oil parcel into a regional wholesaler. Across the desk, a colleague is moving paraffin wax into a packaging buyer. A third is fixing a heating oil cargo for the winter season and a base oil shipment into a lubricant blender. Four cargoes, four buyers, one trading book. A refined oil products trading business is the desk that moves refinery output through the wholesale market.
Refined petroleum products move at scale, and the trade line is huge. The global refined petroleum products market was worth USD 3.12 trillion in 2025 and is forecast to reach USD 3.89 trillion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of 4.6 percent, according to The Business Research Company¹. The UAE sits at the supply end of that picture. The country is set to lead the world's crude oil capacity additions through 2030, adding 720,000 barrels a day, the largest single-country expansion globally, while Middle East producers together are forecast to add 860,000 barrels a day of refined product supply over the same period, according to the International Energy Agency². For a Dubai-licensed refined oil products trader, that is a market with trillions in annual flow and a region adding new refined product supply faster than anywhere else.
A refined oil products trader sits at the centre of a market worth trillions a year, and the UAE is the country adding more new oil supply than anywhere else in the world.
Source: The Business Research Company Refined Petroleum Products Global Market Report 2026 and International Energy Agency Oil 2025 outlook, via IEA
Picture a Dubai-based refined oil products trader at work. The fuel oil desk closes a cargo into a regional wholesaler against the latest Platts assessment. The lubricants and base oils team finalises a quarterly contract with a blender. The wax desk locks in a paraffin parcel for a packaging manufacturer. The specialty team works a bitumen cargo into a construction wholesaler. Each trade is sourced, priced, paid for, shipped, and documented. The trader earns the spread between what the cargo costs to buy and what it lands for, after freight, insurance, finance, and the inspection report.
Whether the product is fuel oil, kerosene, lubricant, base oil, paraffin wax, or bitumen, a refined oil products trader is the desk that moves it through the wholesale market.
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Who is this for?
- Fuel oil and heating products traders: Businesses trading fuel oil, heating oil, and kerosene as wholesale cargoes between refiners and downstream wholesale buyers.
- Lubricants and base oils traders: Operators trading lubricating oils, greases, and base oils into blenders, packagers, and industrial wholesalers.
- Waxes and specialty refined products traders: Firms trading paraffin wax, bitumen, and other specialty refined products into manufacturing, packaging, and construction wholesale buyers.
Meydan Free Zone offers 100% foreign ownership, zero percent corporate tax on qualifying income, full profit repatriation, and a fully digital licensing process. It is a regulated, cost-efficient base for a refined oil products trader, in a city built on the world's busiest tanker routes that trades into Asia, Africa, and Europe inside one working day.
4661.91 - Refined Oil Products Trading
Under this activity, your business is licensed to trade refined oil products derived from converting crude oil in refineries, supplying the wholesale market between producers and downstream buyers.
A refined oil products trading business runs the wholesale desk between the refinery and the downstream market. The work is to source, price, finance, and deliver parcels of product. The range is broad: fuel oil and heating oil, kerosene, lubricating oils and greases, base oils, paraffin wax, bitumen, and other refined products from the refining process. The clients are wholesale buyers: regional distributors, blenders, packagers, specialty wholesalers, and other traders. It is a margin business, where the trader earns the spread between buy and sell after freight, finance, insurance, and inspection.
This activity is for trading refined oil products. Other fuels (naphtha, gasoline, diesel, LPG, solid fuels, offshore crude), supplying fuel as a service, distribution, retail, refining, storage, and transport each fall under separate activities.
If your business trades refined oil products, you are in. If you trade other fuels, supply fuel as a service, or run distribution, retail, refining, storage, or transport, a different activity applies.
Third-Party Approval
Yes. Pre-approval from the Department of Petroleum Affairs (DOPA) is required before a license is issued by Meydan Free Zone.
Anti-Money Laundering Compliance
This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirements.
Note: This activity can only be practiced outside UAE.
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Citations
¹ The Business Research Company. Refined Petroleum Products Global Market Report 2026. The Business Research Company, 2026.
² International Energy Agency. Oil 2025 Outlook. International Energy Agency, 2025.
