Domestic demand helps fuel changes in the way that transactions are done in the world market

Chinese oil companies' rapid switch of oil purchases from over the counter to exchange-based transactions has helped the eight-year-old Dubai Mercantile Exchange become a highly influential regional crude oil marketplace.

Within eight years, Chinese oil imports have grown to account for 70 percent of the physical delivery of oil traded on the Dubai-based DME, compared with about 40 percent three years ago.