SHANGHAI, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's crude oil futures, the first futures variety on the Chinese mainland open to overseas investment, have attracted worldwide interest, exchange data showed Wednesday.

"So far, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) has approved the filings of 32 overseas agencies to provide brokerage services for overseas investors, with three others still waiting approval," according to Li Hui, vice general manager of the Shanghai Futures Exchange, INE's parent company. "Those brokerage agencies have helped investors from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and Britain process trading of crude oil futures."

Currently, crude oil futures held by overseas investors account for about 15 percent of the exchange total.

"The INE crude oil futures have played a preliminary role in pricing and settlement, as the futures have been used as benchmark prices of some long-term crude oil supply contracts denominated and settled in yuan," Li said.

The futures contracts were launched in March 2018 in Shanghai in a move to further open up the financial sector.

By Aug. 30, the combined turnover of the crude oil futures stood at nearly 11 million lots (1,000 barrels per lot), with a total value of 5.34 trillion yuan (about 779 billion U.S. dollars).

The value of daily turnover averages about 49 billion yuan, with the maximum daily amount topping 108.65 billion yuan, according to the INE data.