Enhance the role of Chongqing Oil and Gas Center and strengthen the capacity for element allocation in the Western Financial Center

Pure Gas

As one of the two national-level spot trading platforms for oil and gas in China (located in Chongqing and Shanghai), the Chongqing Oil and Natural Gas Trading Center is an important facility for the development of the Western Financial Center. The center is based on the Chengdu-Chongqing twin-city economic circle, leveraging the region’s abundant energy resources and strategic location advantages. It actively expands energy financial functions, promotes market-based allocation of energy factors, and helps build a modern oil and gas market system. This supports national energy security and enhances the level of financial development in the West.

The role of market-based resource allocation is gradually being realized, with trading volume increasing by over 40% annually. The center seizes strategic opportunities such as national oil and gas system reforms, the new era of Western development, and the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing twin-city economic circle. Since launching trading in April 2018, it has initially established a trading system centered on pipeline natural gas, with multiple products such as liquefied natural gas and gas storage services developing together. The center provides new channels for upstream companies to precisely allocate resources and offers downstream users a fair and transparent way to access resources and reflect real needs. Market trading habits are gradually forming, and trading volume has steadily expanded year by year. As of the end of November 2025, there are over 3,400 trading members, with a total transaction of 490 billion yuan in natural gas, including over 100 billion yuan in the Sichuan-Chongqing region. The market’s role in resource allocation continues to strengthen, and the decisive role of the market in resource distribution is increasingly evident.

Price discovery is becoming more prominent, with Sichuan-Chongqing natural gas prices serving as industry benchmarks. Prices formed through market-based trading effectively reflect regional, seasonal, and industry supply and demand changes, guiding the balanced and rational flow of resources across time and space. This strongly supports the construction of a unified national energy market. Based on trading data and industry price information, the Sichuan-Chongqing LNG price (CYLNG) published by the center has become a market indicator for the region, providing strong support for enterprise operations and government decision-making.

Financial settlement functions are continuously strengthening, with innovative supply chain financial products serving the real economy. The center keeps enhancing the trading platform’s capabilities and extending trading services to the settlement stage. In recent years, companies like Sinopec and Guangdong Energy Group have regularly conducted online settlements. A total of 119 member companies participate in online settlements, with the online settlement scale exceeding 6.5 billion yuan. In the field of supply chain finance, the center actively responds to national policies supporting the real economy through supply chain finance. It collaborates with settlement banks to innovate efficient, convenient, and low-cost online financing products. For example, it launched the first domestic online financing product for the natural gas industry chain, “Qi Yi Dai,” with Kunlun Bank, and introduced the credit financing product “e Ding Tong” for oil and gas suppliers facing financing difficulties with China Construction Bank. These efforts have issued nearly 3 billion yuan in loans to over 30 member companies, effectively meeting the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises in the oil and gas industry. (Chongqing Municipal Financial Office)