(Yicai Global) Dec. 11 -- The crude oil futures market-wide production system held its fifth drilling Dec. 9- 10, with the entire drilling running smoothly and meeting the desired results, online media outlet Paper.cn reported. The drill that came after five months of break is further indication of China gearing up towards unveiling the crude oil futures by early next year in a sign of opening the country's futures market to the world.

The drilling mainly simulated the business scene of trading and settlement on the first day before the listing of crude oil futures and the same day of listing, covering major business processes of Shanghai Futures Exchange (SFE) and its subsidiary, Shanghai International Energy Exchange Co. (SIEE), such as transaction, settlement, deposit and withdrawal, hedging/ arbitrage applications, data submission and quotes forwarding.

In about six months since the official introduction of rules on crude oil business last May, the market has a growing voice for the debut of the crude oil futures. The regulators have also said many times publicly that they would use crude oil futures as a starting point for the opening of China's commodity futures. After coming into the market, the crude oil futures will be China's first futures product opened to the public, and will also be the first commercial futures product to implement the investor eligibility system.

"After years of preparation, crude oil futures are in the final sprint before hitting the market," Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), told a forum in Shenzhen early December.

The fifth drilling was jointly carried out by SFE and SIEE as well as China Futures Market Monitoring Center, futures company members, oil companies and other relevant parties. The SFE had held the previous four drillings between June and July. While the industry was originally confident that crude oil futures would debut at the end of July, the timetable has been postponed due to various factors. However, there is a chance of a successful breakthrough in the near future, analysts believe.

There were 265 seats from 141 members of SEF taking part in the testing, and the turnover amounted to CNY19 billion (USD2.9 billion). Additionally, there were 357 seats from 149 members of SIEE accessing the transaction testing, and the turnover of the simulative crude oil futures contract hit CNY268.2 billion.