Digital yuan used to settle crude oil trade for Chinese oil company: Report

China first rolled out the digital yuan in 2021

article-image

helloabc/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

In a first for both PetroChina and the digital yuan, the Chinese oil and gas company reportedly settled a trade with the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). 

The news was first reported by China Daily, a paper owned by the Chinese Communist Party.

PetroChina allegedly bought a million barrels of crude at the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange (SHPGX), with the transaction settled by e-CNY. 

The announcement from Friday, made by the SHPGX, did not disclose either the seller or the deal’s value.

“The Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government issued work requirements…The Shanghai Oil and Gas Trading Center responded to the call and actively promoted the embedding of digital renminbi in cross-border renminbi payments when expanding international oil and gas trade transactions,” a translated version of the announcement said. 

The digital yuan was first created in 2021, seven years after the People’s Bank of China first started working on the project back in 2014. In April, reports claimed that Changshu — a city in the Jiangsu province of East China — paid civil servants and government employees in the CBDC.

The communist country has been working to incorporate the CBDC and create use cases for it. At the start of this year, the People’s Bank of China first included the CBDC in its official cash reports. 

While China is one of the few countries to have a rolled-out CBDC, a Bank of International Settlements survey found that roughly 93% of central banks admitted that they’re interested in exploring “some form” of a CBDC.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

The L1’s Interwoven Stack is the most opinionated tech stack yet

article-image

Bitcoin is still rising, 11 years after the documentary film The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

article-image

Arch Labs CEO told Blockworks that the team plans to launch a native token, but declined to give details

article-image

CEO Mike Silagadze tells Blockworks that the US is “open for business” and why its DeFi bank offering is the first of many

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best