24 September 2015 – China plans to create a new crude oil and liquefied natural gas pipeline transportation company by stripping these operations out from its three largest oil companies, according to reports.
The move is aimed at reducing such companies monopoly in the oil and gas market and improving competition,the state-backed China Securities Journal reported on Thursday. without saying where it had obtained the information from.
The newspaper said that the plan had been set, and was now being studied and implemented in steps. China’s oil industry is dominated by state players China National Offshore Oil Corporation, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Sinopec.
The move will be in line with Beijing’s plans to allow domestic private investors greater access to its energy sector, which has enjoyed massive expansion over the last two decades but has become a breeding ground for corruption.
CNPC’s PetroChina arm, for example, controls more than 80%of China’s natural gas grid.
On 16 September, Beijing unveiled details of how it planned to carry out the biggest overhaul of its sprawling and underperforming state-owned enterprise sector since the late 1990s. It named oil and gas as a sector that could be suitable for limited non-state investment.
*Reuters
