Shanghai Petroleum Exchange Ltd. (SPEX) will establish an exchange center in Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The exchange center will begin operation on November 8. This is another big step that SPEX has taken since it was founded in August 2006.

Approved by the provincial government of Shaanxi, SPEX will build the center in collaboration with Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co., Ltd., Shaanxi Difang Railway Company and Kingfar Group. The center has been registered with the Xi'an economic and technology development zone. The provincial government plans to provide the center with 500,000 to 1,000,000 tons of oil products and 200,000 tons of methanol products annually.

The exchange center will hopefully grow into a trading hub for energy and chemical products, especially oil products in its local region as well as in China. A person in charge from SPEX said that the center would play an important role in boosting SPEX's medium and long-term spot trading and improving China's oil market.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.cs.com.cn/xwzx/05/200709/t20070927_1215666.htm)

(China.org.cn September 27, 2007)