The Shanghai Oil and Gas Trading Center in Lujiazui, the financial district of Shanghai, has started trial operations in June. It is another national-level trading center for commodity market, which settles in Lujiazui, following the Shanghai International Energy Trade Center and the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

With a registered capital of 1 billion yuan ($159.7 million), the trade center is founded under a strategic alliance between the Xinhua News Agency and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the nation's top economic planner. It involves 10 enterprises, including China's oil and gas giants such as China National petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the Sinopec Corp and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Gas and Power Group.

The center is a platform for spot trading of natural gas, unconventional gas, liquefied petroleum gas, petroleum and other energy products. It operates under the guidance and supervision of the NDRC, the National Energy Administration and the municipal administrative departments of the spot commodities market.

In the future, the new trading center will establish an oil and gas trade and settlement platform as well as an online service system. It aims to position itself as a gas trading hub for China, similar to the Henry Hub in the US or the UK NBP (the National Balancing Point) in Britain. The newly-established Shanghai Oil and Gas Trading Centre aims to develop into an Asia-Pacific oil and gas pricing and trading center in the future.

Edited by Mevlut Katik