China's state-owned China National Chemical Corp., or ChemChina, is planning to set up an oil trading desk in Singapore in mid-September, a source at ChemChina said Wednesday.
"Our Singapore trading desk will have around 10 people for mainly crude and fuel oil in the beginning," the source said.
But the company will still need to use Unipec -- the trading arm of state-owned oil major Sinopec and Chinaoil -- the trading arm of state-owned oil major PetroChina or state-owned CNOOC as import agents if they want to import crude oil into China, said the source.
ChemChina has appointed three traders -- all from state-owned Zhenhua Oil Co. -- for Singapore desk. The desk will be led by Li Shu, -- a former crude oil trader at Zhenhua, the source added.