By Zheng Lifei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-12-28 09:37

Zhang said that his exchange may begin trading liquefied petroleum gas as early as in March.

The bourse, the research head said, may also start trading crude oil and petrol next year.

Currently, Shanghai Petroleum Exchange only trades fuel oil.

But Zhang said earlier that the exchange would shift more emphasis to trading crude and other oil products in the future to drive its business.

China rolled out its second petroleum bourse Dalian Petroleum Exchange earlier this week in Northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, as the country is moving to loosen its controls on oil and gas prices.

The Dalian exchange will initially trade fuel oil, asphalt and other petrochemicals.

Dalian, where one of country's three strategic oil reserves is located, processed 19.68 million tons of crude oil and consumed 2.87 million tons of oil last year.

Starting from next year, foreign oil companies will be allowed to enter China's crude oil, petrol and diesel wholesale andretailmarkets, it said earlier this month.

But Zhang said that the Dalian exchange would not pose any immediate threat to the Shanghai exchange, as it is positioned to act as a national platform to set benchmark prices for oil products in China.

Many experts say that the Dalian Petroleum Exchange is likely to play a similar role in Northern China.

China, currently the world's second-largest oil user, consumed nearly 330 million tons of oil last year.

Its oil consumption may rise 6.4 per cent this year to 7 million barrels a day, the International Energy Agency predicted in its October report.

Shanghai Petroleum Exchange was the country's largest petroleum trading platform in the early 1990s, accounting for 70 per cent of the national total. The bourse was closed in 1994 when the country began to control its oil prices.

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