China: Shanghai crude oil futures close lower
Jul 12, 2022
Shanghai [China], July 12 : Crude oil futures closed lower Tuesday in daytime trading on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange.
The most active crude oil contract for August 2022 delivery was down 8.6 yuan (about 1.28 U.S. dollars) to close at 677.4 yuan a barrel.
The total trading volume for 10 listed crude oil futures contracts on the exchange was 306,098 lots, with a turnover of about 206.53 billion yuan. China launched crude oil futures trading, which is open to overseas investment, in March 2018.
It is also to be noted that China is increasing purchases of oil from Russia at bargain prices. This comes after it initially cut back on Russian supplies, for fear of appearing to openly support Moscow and potentially expose its state oil giants to sanctions.
Protecting the country's overseas assets from US-led sanctions, China has chosen to break Russia's trust by cutting its payment services, space ties and suspending scientific cooperation amid the war in Ukraine.
Earlier, in an emergency meeting with domestic and foreign banks, Chinese regulators mooted how they protect the country's overseas assets from US-led sanctions similar to those imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, reported The Hong Kong Post.
Meanwhile, Russia's gross domestic product is just one-tenth of China's and the power balance between the two nations is far more than equal.
China's support to Russia in opposition to the enlargement of NATO has given rise to concerns in the Eastern and Central European countries about the reliability of the Asian giant as a partner and whether it can be counted on.
