Dec 16 (Reuters) - State oil giant PetroChina

plans to begin trading metals used in the energy

transition, according to the new team head, joining the global

energy majors that are diversifying their portfolios into the

commodities.

Richard Fu, a commodities and financial industry veteran of

more than three decades, has joined PetroChina International

(London) Co Ltd as trading manager, he said in a recent post on

LinkedIn.

"I am honoured to start the green energy transition and

minerals business for PetroChina, trading physical and paper

copper, lithium, and others," he wrote.

PetroChina, the listed arm of Asia's top oil producer China

National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), did not respond to a request for

comment.

Fu, who was previously head of commodities at the London

branch of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, declined to comment

further.

A person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be

identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media,

said that in addition to lithium and copper, the new PetroChina

unit may also look to trade nickel and consider entering markets

in Europe for trading carbon and electricity.

China's state oil giants have been looking to diversify

their businesses, including internationally, as surging adoption

of electric vehicles slows domestic oil demand growth.

Global energy traders and producers including U.S. major

Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) and Saudi Aramco have been diversifying into

lithium in particular to capitalise on the shift to

electrification and the energy transition.

Last year, Exxon announced plans to start producing lithium,

used in EV batteries, by 2027.

Saudi Aramco and the United Arab Emirates' Abu

Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) plan to extract lithium from brine

in their oilfields, Reuters reported in March.