As international oil prices witnessed sharp fluctuations from the year to date, ICBC’s account-based crude oil trading has continued to boom. From January to February 2016, the trade of account-based crude oil exceeded 100 million barrels, more than doubled from a year earlier. The single-day trade exceeded 9 million barrels, hitting a new record.

The account-based crude oil is an investment product launched by ICBC in 2013. Customers can trade crude oil shares in RMB or USD, with only shares counted and without claiming physical crude oil. This business features flexible transaction mode, low threshold, quick and convenient channel, long transaction period and real-time clearing. The trading products include North American account-based crude oil linked with WTI and international account-based crude oil linked with Brent.

The account-based crude oil business supports two-way trade. Regardless of price rise or drop, investors have the opportunities to make profits through long or short positions. In addition, account-based crude oil has a fixed maturity date for each term. To continue investment, investors may activate the “automatic renewal” function. Then the system will automatically close position of last term’s products and open position of next term’s products by the maturity date. Compared with manual operation, it is more convenient with lower transaction cost.