China plans to allow foreign investors to trade its proposed crude futures contract as the world’s second-largest oil consumer seeks to bolster its influence in determining benchmark prices. The Shanghai International Energy Exchange will allow foreign investors to trade through agents that have net capital of at least 30 million yuan ($4.8 million) or the equivalent in foreign currency, according to draft rules published on its website on Wednesday. It will accept foreign-denominated funds, standard warehouse receipts, treasury bonds and securities with “stable value and high liquidity” as collateral. China wants more control over oil pricing as its reliance on crude imports increases. The nation’s overseas shipments as a share of consumption will surpass 60 percent this year for the first time, up from 59.5 percent in 2014, according to China National Petroleum Corp. The government introduced a domestic crude futures contract in 1993, stopping a year […]