A worker at the Zhoushan branch of Core Laboratories N.V., one of the world's four largest oil product testing service providers. [Photo/WeChat account: china-zjftz]

Zhoushan no longer needs to send oil product samples to cities like Ningbo and Shanghai for testing, as the city has brought in a number of professional testing agencies in recent years.

One such company is Core Laboratories N.V., which opened a branch in Zhoushan in May 2019. 

Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Core Lab provides core and fluid analysis services for the petroleum industry. It is one of the world's four largest oil product testing service providers.

In addition to basic tests, the company's testing facility is also capable of accurately detecting chemical pollutants in oil products, meaning Zhoushan is only the second city in China to have this capability, following Shanghai. 

Core Lab reported profits in Zhoushan the year it established operations in the city. Around 260 samples are sent to the company for testing each month, with the amount sometimes exceeding 400, far more than the parent company initially expected.

Bringing in oil product testing agencies comes as part of the local authorties' broad push to develop the city into an international maritime service hub. 

So far, Zhoushan has brought in more than 170 maritime service enterprises and modern shipping service institutions involved in sectors such as ship management, shipping finance, and maritime arbitration. Twenty-two of them were brought in this year. 

Zhao Jun, deputy head of investment attraction at the Zhoushan municipal port navigation and administration bureau, said that the city is working to bring in international shipping organizations and enterprises specializing in crew and ship management.