Shanghai Petroleum Exchange, the country's first bourse for oil products, will start trading three new petrochemicals next month, as the young bourse quickens its pace to offer more products.

The exchange, which was reopened in August, plans to introduce toluene, xylene and styrene next month - a move that would bring the number of products it trades to four.

We have initially set the trading date on January 18, but this depends on market conditions," Zhang Jianquan, head of the bourse's research department, said yesterday.

Toluene is a solvent and is also widely used as an industrial feedstock. Styrene is used primarily in the synthetic rubber industry and as a building block for polymers in making products such as plastics and resins. Xylene is a solvent widely used to produce products such as paints and coatings, as well as petrol and insecticides.

The petroleum exchange, of which China's three oil giants PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC are investors, is planning to introduce more oil products in the coming months, Zhang said.

Zhang said that his exchange may begin trading liquefied petroleum gas as early as in March.

The bourse, the research head said, may also start trading crude oil and petrol next year.

Currently, Shanghai Petroleum Exchange only trades fuel oil.

But Zhang said earlier that the exchange would shift more emphasis to trading crude and other oil products in the future to drive its business.

China rolled out its second petroleum bourse Dalian Petroleum Exchange earlier this week in Northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, as the country is moving to loosen its controls on oil and gas prices.

The Dalian exchange will initially trade fuel oil, asphalt and other petrochemicals.

Dalian, where one of country's three strategic oil reserves is located, processed 19.68 million tons of crude oil and consumed 2.87 million tons of oil last year.

Starting from next year, foreign oil companies will be allowed to enter China's crude oil, petrol and diesel wholesale and retail markets, it said earlier this month.

But Zhang said that the Dalian exchange would not pose any immediate threat to the Shanghai exchange, as it is positioned to act as a national platform to set benchmark prices for oil products in China.

Many experts say that the Dalian Petroleum Exchange is likely to play a similar role in Northern China.

China, currently the world's second-largest oil user, consumed nearly 330 million tons of oil last year.

Its oil consumption may rise 6.4 per cent this year to 7 million barrels a day, the International Energy Agency predicted in its October report.

Shanghai Petroleum Exchange was the country's largest petroleum trading platform in the early 1990s, accounting for 70 per cent of the national total. The bourse was closed in 1994 when the country began to control its oil prices.