On March 26th, 20 18, crude oil futures will be officially listed and traded in Shanghai International Energy Trading Center of Shanghai Futures Exchange. The listing of crude oil futures is a milestone event, which has great significance and far-reaching influence on both the China futures market and the oil industry.
Oil is the dominant energy source in the world, accounting for about 1/3 of the world's primary energy consumption. 2/KLOC-0 Since the beginning of the century, the trend of world oil production moving westward and consumption moving eastward has gradually taken shape. Since 2004, the oil consumption in the Asia-Pacific region has surpassed that in North America and Europe, becoming the largest oil consumption market in the world. In 20 17, the apparent consumption of crude oil in China was 61000000 tons, and the import volume was 420 million tons, surpassing the United States for the first time to become the largest crude oil importer in the world.
Global crude oil trade pricing is mainly based on futures market prices. At present, more than 10 futures exchanges in the world have launched their own crude oil futures. Among them, the Intercontinental Exchanges in the New York Mercantile Exchange and London under the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group are the two largest crude oil futures trading centers in the world, and their WTI crude oil futures and Brent crude oil futures play the role of benchmark crude oil contracts in North America and Europe respectively.
Despite the large consumption and import of crude oil in the Asia-Pacific region, there is no mature futures market in this region to provide pricing benchmarks and tools to avoid risks for crude oil trade. Japan, Singapore, India and other countries have explored and tried to establish crude oil futures markets, but their influence is not great, and there is no benchmark for crude oil trade pricing. Because there is no pricing benchmark that fully reflects the actual supply and demand of crude oil in the Asia-Pacific region, Asia-Pacific countries can only passively accept Platts offer in Singapore and Oman crude oil futures price in Dubai Commodity Exchange as pricing benchmarks for crude oil trade. However, these prices do not reflect the real situation of China and other major crude oil importing countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
At present, the price of crude oil imported from the Middle East by Asia-Pacific countries, including China, is higher than that of crude oil of the same quality purchased by European and American countries in the same region, which is a very bad thing for Asia-Pacific countries.
Shanghai Futures Exchange mainly considered the following factors when designing crude oil futures contracts.
The first is the subject matter of the futures contract-what oil to choose. In 20 17, the external dependence of China crude oil exceeded 68%. 43% of imported crude oil comes from the Middle East, which is the main source of China's crude oil imports. Considering the variety structure of imported crude oil in China and the demand of real economy, the crude oil futures contract of Shanghai Futures Exchange is based on intermediate sour crude oil different from WTI and Brent.
The second is the currency of pricing and settlement-the question of what currency is used for pricing. Most international crude oil spot trade is denominated and settled in US dollars, and the major crude oil futures contracts WTI, Brent and Oman crude oil futures are also denominated and settled in US dollars. Crude oil futures contracts launched by India, Japan and other countries all explore the settlement in domestic currency. China's crude oil futures contracts are denominated and settled in RMB, but foreign currency can be used as margin, which balances the needs of domestic investors and international investors.
The third is the type of oil that can be transported-what kind of oil can be transported. China's crude oil futures are delivered in kind, and the biggest risk is delivery risk. Therefore, it is very important to determine what kind of oil can be transported. Based on various factors, there are seven kinds of deliverable oil products in crude oil futures announced by Shanghai Futures Exchange, mainly Middle East crude oil, including six kinds of crude oil such as Dubai crude oil in United Arab Emirates, Upper Zakum crude oil, Oman crude oil, Qatar offshore oil, Yemeni ape crude oil and Iraqi Basra light oil. At the same time, Shengli crude oil, as the only crude oil in China, is included in the deliverable oil products.
The fourth is to designate delivery warehouses-oil transportation and oil delivery. Like 90% of international crude oil trade depends on shipping, China imports crude oil mainly by shipping. The six designated delivery warehouses and eight storage points opened at the initial stage of listing of crude oil futures are mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Delta region, the Pearl River Delta region, the Jiaodong Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula, taking into full consideration the factors such as convenient coastal shipping, proximity to large refineries and crude oil distribution centers, and giving consideration to the north and the south. In the next step, with the diversification of China's crude oil import sources and transportation channels, Shanghai Futures Exchange will optimize the layout of designated delivery warehouses in time to better serve the real economy and national strategy.
In addition, crude oil futures will be "bonded delivery" based on bonded oil depots, mainly considering that bonded spot trade is priced at a net price excluding tariffs and value-added tax, which is convenient for direct comparison with the duty-free price in the international market and avoids the impact of changes in domestic tax policies on transaction prices; Bonded trade has few restrictions on participants, and bonded oil depots can serve as a link between domestic and foreign crude oil markets, which is conducive to foreign participation in trading and delivery.
In the process of launching crude oil futures in China, western media paid close attention to it. Observing western media reports, there are two main concerns: First, I am worried that the introduction of crude oil futures in China will weaken the dominant position of WTI and Brent crude oil futures in international crude oil pricing. Second, it is worried that the petroRMB will seize the share of petrodollars and shake the status of the US dollar as a major international reserve currency. However, as the world's largest crude oil importer and the second largest crude oil consumer, China introduced crude oil futures mainly for the needs of its real economy development and further reform and opening up.
The listing of crude oil futures has the following significance for China.
First of all, China enterprises can easily use the local crude oil futures market to hedge and manage risks, while leaving valuable investor resources at home.
Second, make up the gaps in the existing international crude oil pricing system, and establish a crude oil pricing benchmark that reflects the relationship between supply and demand in China and the Asia-Pacific market. This is not only good for China, but also good for the Asia-Pacific region and even the whole world.
Third, with the maturity and attractiveness of the crude oil futures market denominated and settled in RMB, it will promote the international use of RMB and promote the internationalization of RMB.
Fourth, be a pathfinder for commodity futures opening to the outside world. The homogeneity of commodities, the free trading of spot market and the application of "law of one price" in commodity trade determine that the commodity futures market has the natural attributes of internationalization and globalization, and it is more urgent to open to the outside world. The experience accumulated by crude oil futures in open path, tax management, foreign exchange management, bonded delivery and cross-border supervision and cooperation can be gradually extended to other mature commodity futures such as iron ore and non-ferrous metals, thus promoting the full opening of China's commodity futures market.
The construction of crude oil futures market is a complex and long-term systematic project, and the maturity and function of the market need a gradual cultivation process. While promoting the development of the crude oil futures market, we should constantly strengthen the front-line supervision and risk management of the market. In addition to strictly abiding by the effective trading coding system, margin system, position limit system, large position declaration system and penetrating supervision system in the domestic futures market, we will actively carry out the examination of traders' suitability, open an account in real-name registration system across the board, and actually control the declaration of relationship accounts, strengthen the management of special fund accounts and close margin operations, severely crack down on all kinds of illegal activities, effectively prevent market risks, and ensure the smooth operation and normal trading order of the crude oil futures market.