Regional gold reform looks at Zhejiang: Relying on the sea Zhoushan explores the development path of "oil and gas + finance"

Building an integrated oil and gas trading market in the Yangtze River Delta period has accumulated nearly 400 billion yuan in cross-border RMB settlement in five years

Editor's note

Finance is the core of the modern economy and the lifeblood of a city's
development.
In the past decade, Hangzhou's financial institutions have forged ahead and bravely opened up new situations, laying a good foundation
for Hangzhou's urban development and construction.
In order to welcome the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and comprehensively display the achievements of Hangzhou's financial system in terms of common prosperity, Asian Games city construction, digital financial reform, and promotion of regional economic development, from now on, the special report of "Ten Years of City Mayors • Practical Hangzhou" will be launched to show the growth
of Hangzhou's financial industry and the city in this decade.

Speaking of Zhoushan, most people's impression is inseparable from the sea
.
The unique marine resources not only bring abundant popularity to Zhoushan's tourism industry, but also the "city by the sea" in recent years has gradually explored the development and integration path of "oil and gas + finance" in accordance with the development path of "oil in nothing" and "gas development"
.

Since the listing of the China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone on April 1, 2017, Zhoushan has taken the lead in exploring the integration of oil and gas in the current period and carrying out reforms such as the supply of fuel preservation and cross-customs areas, forming a number of cross-departmental, cross-regional and cross-level innovative achievements, and the construction of the RMB internationalization demonstration zone for cross-border trade of bulk commodities has been effective
.

Helping to build an integrated oil and gas trading market in the Yangtze River Delta period The "Zhoushan Bonded Fuel Oil Price Index System" has begun to take shape

Walking into the Zhejiang International Oil and Gas Trading Center (hereinafter referred to as "Zhejiang Oil Center"), the huge scrolling screen constantly displays the daily oil trading volume and related prices
.
As the only trading platform specializing in petrochemical product trading services in the province, Zhejiang Oil Center plays an important role
in promoting the construction of "one center, three bases and one demonstration zone" in the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone (Zhoushan Area).

It is understood that Zhejiang Oil Center currently gathers 2443 market entities, and the annual trade (transaction) volume accounts for about 40%
of the total oil products traded in the Zhoushan area of the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone.
From January to August this year, the center achieved a trade transaction volume of 291.
623 billion yuan, an increase of 40.
17% year-on-year; The trade volume was 51.
8598 million tons, an increase of 14.
01%
year-on-year.
And the online transaction volume has exceeded the sum of last year's
whole year.

Lai Xin, deputy secretary, vice chairman and general manager of the party branch of Zhejiang Oil Center, introduced that Zhejiang Oil Center actively builds an international oil and gas trading integration service platform, implements the strategic goal of "one market and three centers", builds an oil and gas spot market with international influence, builds an oil and gas integrated service center, an oil and gas derivatives innovation center, becomes an oil and gas resource allocation center, and finally forms an oil and gas pricing center
with regional influence.

It is undeniable that the development of Zhejiang Oil Center is inseparable from the support
of Zhoushan's financial industry.
In fact, when the platform was first established, it could only provide basic services such as registration and bookkeeping to enterprises, and a series of financial business service needs of members were difficult to meet
.
After exploring the "pain points", Zhejiang Oil Center has successively launched new business models such as agent auction, proxy mining + distribution through cooperation with financial institutions, cooperated with banks to carry out order financing supporting services, and cooperated with futures companies to explore risk management services
.

In March 2021, the People's Bank of China Hangzhou Center Sub-branch and the Provincial Free Trade Office jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Financial Support for the Expansion and Empowerment of the China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone", which proposes to support banks in the zone to provide warehouse receipt spot trading fund clearing and warehouse receipt pledge financing services for oil spot exchange members, and to support Zhejiang Oil Center to set up a spot oil warehouse receipt transaction current account settlement account
.
Up to now, 13 banks have carried out strategic cooperation with Zhejiang Oil Center, and the agglomeration effect of member enterprises has been further enhanced
.

In addition, Zhejiang Oil Center also carries out futures and cash cooperation with the Shanghai Futures Exchange, and this year on the basis of the release of "China Zhoushan low-sulfur fuel oil bonded ship quotation" (seller's quotation) in 2021, in cooperation with international shipowners, municipal port navigation and port administration, municipal port association, municipal meteorological bureau, etc.
, successively released the "Zhoushan oil storage comprehensive price", "Zhoushan anchorage oil supply meteorological index", "Zhoushan oil products available commercial storage capacity" and "Zhoushan low-sulfur fuel oil bonded ship quotation" (buyer quotation)," The Zhoushan bonded fuel oil price index system "began to take shape
.

Focus on the oil and gas industry chain Bonded fuel oil refueling cross-border settlement is more convenient

All along, in-depth promotion of the development of the whole oil and gas industry chain, focusing on the construction of the whole oil and gas industry chain has been the top priority in the construction of the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone (Zhoushan Area
).

In addition to the pilot policy of oil trade facilitation and settlement in the country, in the past five years, the People's Bank of China Zhoushan City Center Branch has supported the development of Zhoushan's oil and gas industry and led the launch of a number of innovative businesses
。 For example, in July 2018, Zheshang Bank, together with Sinochem Xingzhong Petroleum Transshipment (Zhoushan) Co.
, Ltd.
and Zhejiang International Oil and Gas Trading Center, built the country's first "warehouse receipt pass" platform based on blockchain technology; In December 2019, Bank of Hangzhou Zhoushan Branch handled the first global ship fuel supply foreign exchange settlement business in Zhejiang Free Trade Zone for Sinopec Zhejiang Zhoushan Petroleum Co.
, Ltd.
In March 2020, Bank of China and Zheshang Bank simultaneously invested in the Zhejiang International Oil and Gas Trading Center, assisted Zhejiang Oil Center in promoting the construction of a bonded commodity registration system in the free trade zone, and gradually docked with the unified registration and publicity system for movable property financing in the Credit Information Center of the People's Bank of China
.

With the launch of a series of favorable policies and innovative businesses, a large number of oil and gas enterprises have gathered in Zhoushan
.
In 2018, Sinopec Fuel Oil Sales Co.
, Ltd.
also moved the global ship fuel supply business center to Zhoushan, adding vitality
to the oil and gas industry in the free trade zone.

According to statistics, since the establishment of the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone (Zhoushan Area), the supply of bonded oil has increased by an average of 32% per year, reaching 5.
52 million tons
in 2021.
Recently, in the ranking of the "Top Ten Ship Refueling Ports in the World" released by the Global Bunker Fuel Development Forum of the 5th World Oilers Conference, Ningbo Zhoushan Port ranked among the world's fifth largest ship bunkering ports
.
In order to facilitate the trading of enterprises and ships in bonded oil, the Zhoushan Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China responded immediately and jointly launched the review of the foreign exchange settlement voucher for the resale of bonded oil products in conjunction with local financial institutions, which greatly improved the transaction efficiency
.

As an enterprise specializing in providing bonded fuel oil supply for ships and international and domestic trade, Zhejiang Seaport International Trade Co.
, Ltd.
(hereinafter referred to as "Seaport International Trade") has fully felt the great convenience
brought by the foreign trade foreign exchange receipt and expenditure facilitation policy to the company's bonded fuel oil refueling business in its daily work.

"In the past, we paid foreign exchange offline, first of all, we must collect information including contract invoices, logistics information, customs data, etc.
, go to the bank queue with information, some banks also need customs signatures, it takes at least half a day to come and go, and now it is very different
.
" Li Na, deputy general manager of Seaport International Trade, said that the annual supply of bonded fuel oil in Seaport International Trade has exceeded 400,000 tons, and 486 times was added last year alone, excluding extreme weather such as typhoons, which is equivalent to completing about 2 times a day of offshore refueling
.
Compared with the previous cumbersome links, after the implementation of the facilitation policy, only need to submit the payment instructions to the bank online, and the relevant vouchers will be reviewed in the background, generally 1-2 minutes can be completed
.

It is reported that since the beginning of this year, Zhoushan has supported 8 oil enterprises under its jurisdiction to handle 398 cross-border revenue and expenditure business of bonded oil resale, with a total amount of 5.
6 billion US dollars.

Cross-border RMB settlement has accumulated nearly 400 billion yuan Actively build a demonstration zone for the internationalization of RMB

In the process of promoting the construction of "one center, three bases and one demonstration area" in the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone (Zhoushan Area), the "one demonstration area" is the RMB internationalization demonstration zone
.

Since the listing of the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone in 2017, with the support of People's Bank of China, the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone has focused on the construction of the RMB internationalization demonstration zone, and has carried out a series of pilot projects
such as cross-border RMB settlement facilitation and capital account income settlement and payment facilitation.
As of the end of July, the RMB settlement of cross-border trade in the Zhoushan area of the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone had accumulated nearly 400 billion yuan, with an average annual settlement volume of 10 times that of the pre-listing, benefiting more than 800 Zhejiang enterprises, covering 77 countries and regions
.
The construction of the RMB internationalization demonstration zone was selected as a series of national strategy landing innovation cases
.

Ming Xiuwen, president of the Zhoushan City Center Branch of the People's Bank of China, said that when the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone was listed, the people's banks at the provincial and municipal levels jointly formulated and issued "33 financial policies"
.
The Zhoushan City Center Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China has specified the settlement targets
of 70 billion yuan, 90 billion yuan, 100 billion yuan and 120 billion yuan in the next four years.
During this period, pilot policies allowing enterprises to use BDN (fuel delivery note) or LOI (letter of guarantee without bill of lading) vouchers instead of the original bill of lading to handle cross-border RMB re-export business, oil products enterprises only rely on the "Cross-border Business RMB Settlement Receipt/Payment Instructions" to handle fund settlement, as well as 7 new businesses such as domestic cross-border financing blockchain forfaiting, risk participation loans, bonded fuel oil letters of credit, and cross-border RMB interbank financing business, allocating more than 300 billion yuan of cross-border funds for more than 800 enterprises in the province.
While expanding the volume of cross-border settlement, it has also alleviated the problems faced by some enterprises such as
financing difficulties.

At present, Zhoushan has 75 high-quality enterprises included in the pilot list of cross-border RMB settlement facilitation, with a total of 7.
3 billion yuan in high-level trade and investment facilitation settlement, and supporting two enterprises to handle cross-border RMB settlement of entrepot trade of nearly 100 million yuan
.