SINOCHEM Corp. plans to open a trading office in the United States, drawn by the opportunity to trade growing production in the Americas, five sources with knowledge of the matter said Friday.

The oil and chemical trader’s plan to open an office in Houston would seek to benefit from rising U.S. crude production, which could prompt crude exports to rise by 45 percent in 2018 from last year, analysts said. Sinochem could also use the office to meet growing opportunities to supply China’s independent refineries.

The proposed office may start operating later in the first half of this year with three to five staff initially, they said. Sinochem had a U.S. oil trading office that closed about 20 years ago.

Sinochem crude oil trader Zhu Yibing, currently trading North and South American crude from London, will move to the new office in Houston, the sources said.

“The United States is where everyone is setting up offices...with growing supplies from the United States, there will be plenty of barrels available for trading,” said a company source.

Bigger domestic rivals Sinopec and PetroChina both have trading operations in Houston. Unipec, the trading arm of Sinopec, is the region’s largest buyer of U.S. crude oil.

Major oil companies and trading houses are bulking up U.S. operations to market rising crude oil production from onshore U.S. shale resources and offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil.

Sinochem’s new office is expected to market its equity production from South America, previously handled from London. The grades include Ecuadorean Napo, Colombian Vasconia and Brazilian Peregrino that are considered so-called heavy crudes.

Marketing of the firm’s equity shale oil output in western Texas could also fall under the new office’s purview, said a second source familiar with the plan.

In 2013, parent Sinochem Group bought a 40 percent stake in Pioneer Natural Resources’ Wolfcamp shale acreage, in the Permian Basin, for US$1.7 billion. (SD-Agencies)