Although the China version of crude oil futures has been brewing for a long time, it has really attracted the attention of the international community. Some people even associate this matter with Sino-US relations on the verge of a trade war, thinking that this is the cause or result of Sino-US trade disputes. But be realistic, they think too much. The introduction of oil futures will not affect Sino-US trade at least in the short term, nor will it cause any loss to the United States. The United States can't stop the introduction of China oil futures for any purpose. For China, the introduction of oil futures is in line with China's economic development and a natural reflection of China's position in the world oil trade.
In the global oil transportation map, it is the thickest line in the global oil transportation from the Gulf and East Africa to the coast of China via the Indian Ocean. As the second largest economy in the world, China ranks first in import volume and its dependence on foreign countries exceeds 65%. Although it is so important in the market, there is no international crude oil futures contract that can reflect this demand, and there is no pricing benchmark that can reflect the actual supply and demand of crude oil in the Asia-Pacific region. The introduction of Shanghai crude oil futures will help to form a crude oil pricing benchmark that reflects the relationship between supply and demand in China and even the Asia-Pacific region, further improve the international crude oil pricing system, and enhance China's right to speak on crude oil prices.
What really arouses people's imagination about Shanghai crude oil futures is that it is denominated in RMB. So far, global commodities are basically priced in dollars. From the perspective of the crude oil market, after China crude oil futures were officially listed and traded, the era of "dollar oil" and "petrodollars" as the only factors that have affected the international commodity and money markets for almost a long time came to an end theoretically, and the emergence of "RMB oil" and "petroRMB" will be an important part of the new international order.