A senior executive of the parent company of the financially troubled China Aviation Oil (CAO) in Singapore said efforts were underway to avert the CAO bankruptcy and reduce losses of shareholders and creditors.

"As China is working hard to promote investment abroad, the negative impact created by the bankruptcy of CAO should be fully taken into account. We're actively seeking solutions to the issue with an eye to reducing losses and shoulder our responsibilities to shareholders and creditors," said Hai Liancheng, deputy general manager of CAOHC, which holds a majority stake in CAO, Thursday.

The Singapore-based China Aviation Oil (CAO) sought local court protection from creditors after losing 554 million US dollars in derivatives trading, which was made in excess of its scope of mandate.

Hai noted China's aviation oil supply remained normal at present and there wouldn't occur a crisis in this field despite the incident.

"We have made careful arrangements in our work. Our company is operating smoothly in every field," acknowledged Hai. "There's no shortage of aviation oil at present."

He also noted that except the suspension of its stock trading and futures businesses, all other operations of the Singapore company were also running normally and steadily. Aviation supply to domestic planes shouldn't be influenced.

CAOHC, which supplies most of the aviation oil in China, has taken steps to set up a new subsidiary under the troubled Singapore unit so as to ensure the normal operation of the aviation fuel procurement business, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2004)