(Yicai) Oct. 20 -- The Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, which specializes in trading energy-related products, has settled its first cross-border trade in China’s digital currency.

PetroChina International paid for one million barrels of crude oil using digital yuan yesterday, the SHPGX announced today, without disclosing either the name of the seller or the sum involved. It was also the bourse's first overseas oil settlement in yuan.

The e-yuan, or Digital Currency Electronic Payment, was developed by China's central bank. The project began in 2014 and the electronic currency has been piloted and tested in cities and regions across China. The country is keen to use the yuan and its digital version in international trade and finance.

Besides expanding its domestic business, the SHPGX is actively exploring the international oil and gas trading business to provide a fast, stable, and efficient channel for global resources to enter the Chinese market, it said.

As of last week, the SHPGX has settled three more cross-border natural gas trades in yuan since PetroChina and TotalEnergies completed the first cross-national purchase of liquefied natural gas using the redback in March. None of these involved the digital yuan.

More than 92.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas was traded on the exchange last year.

In operation since November 2016, the SHPGX is registered in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. China Economic Information Service, an arm of Xinhua News Agency, is its largest shareholder. Its other major investors include the three energy giants PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC.

Editor: Emmi Laine