Abstract

Commerce is the kernel of e-commerce, being as an Internet form of enterprise resources and experiences gained over years. Our work and life styles were, are and will be changed by e-commerce.

Global e-commerce is developing rapidly. It is beyond imagination that e-commerce in petroleum and petrochemical industries is progressing at full speed now. As estimated, the amount of e-commerce in global petroleum and chemical products will be up to US$ 713 billion in 2003.

Some petroleum and petrochemical companies in Europe, America and Asia are setting up their ecommerce sites. As well a lot of sites are built in petroleum and petrochemical enterprises in China, but the concept of e-commerce is less acknowledged and the amount of e-commerce trade is still low.

PetroChina has begun an e-commerce portal site in Beijing on 6th July 2001 after its intranet and extranet. It is estimated that the amount of e-procurement will reach US$ 1.2 billion and e-sales US$ 1.03 billion in 2002. In the coming 4 years, e-procurement will increase to US$ 7.06 billion. Sinopec has developed two B2B e-commerce trading platforms. The amount of e-commerce procurement has come up to US$ 0.97 billion by the end of 2001. The first phase of CA Unicenter TNG project was checked and accepted by CNOOC in March 2001.

Petroleum and petrochemical enterprises need e-commerce. It is necessary to realize e-commerce through three steps: intranet, extranet and e-commerce. An overall enterprise e-commerce is to introduce the e-commerce mode into the overall enterprise management. For petroleum and petrochemical business, B2B site may be established, including e-commerce among enterprises and clients as well as among enterprises and suppliers.

M2M (Marketplace-to-Marketplace) e-commerce is a new trend. The petroleum and petrochemical industries in China will go through B2B and M2M e-commerce process eventually.

Introduction

E-commerce means the conduction of business and trade activities between buyer and seller through simple, quick, low-cost electronic communication. Commerce is the kernel of e-commerce, being as an Internet form of enterprise resources and experiences gained over years.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon.com, initiated his Internet bookstore with an investment of US$300,000 in July 1995. Four years later, the company had 13.1 million customers totally and attracted US$7 billion sales. He was named as Time magazine's Man of the Year 1999. "Bezos is a person who not only changed the way we do things but helped us to pave the way for the future," said Time chief editor Walter Isaacson, explaining the magazine's choice.

Although the falling of Nasdaq index and terrorist's attack to U.S have shocked American and global economy, e-commerce, the vigorous new thing, will spread worldwide quickly. Our work and life styles were, a

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