China launched its long-awaited national pipeline company Monday, state-owned Xinhua news agency reported, a move that is set to expand infrastructure access to energy industry stakeholders.
The new company is expected to break up long-existing monopolies in China's oil and gas sectors, with the ultimate goal of enhancing supply security and lowering the cost of the country's energy consumption, market sources said.
"[This is] a key step towards deepening China's oil and gas reforms by increasing suppliers and supply channels of upstream resources and building a more efficient and competitive pipeline transportation system across the supply chain," an official close to the National Pipeline Company was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
The company will break up the country's oil and gas pipeline transportation, from upstream production and downstream sales, and will facilitate third-party access to oil and gas infrastructure, helping boost market competition and efficiency of resource allocation, the official said.
It will be responsible for building and interconnecting oil and gas trunk pipelines, gas storage and peak shaving facilities, transporting crude oil, oil product and natural gas through the pipelines, as well as disclosing pipeline and storage capacity availability to third parties, and enabling them to apply for access, he said.
Sources said some LNG receiving terminals under the three national oil companies will also be put under the new company, but this could not be confirmed.
Local media said the new entity would be controlled by the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, which holds 40% share, and jointly managed and operated by PetroChina (30%), Sinopec (20%) and CNOOC (10%).
Three main business departments -- crude, natural gas and oil products -- will be set up to operate the different pipelines and facilities, local media reported. Two PetroChina and CNOOC sources had earlier said that the three major companies -- PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC -- would send senior officials to assist in the management of the new company.
