On December 9, 2019, a new oil and gas state-owned enterprise, “National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group Co., Ltd.” was officially established. This is of great significance for deepening the reform of oil and gas. The newly established oil and gas central enterprises are mainly responsible for the investment and construction of national oil and gas trunk pipelines and some gas storage and peak shaving facilities. It will play a vital role in forming a national network for the interconnection of main pipelines.

At the same time, the national pipeline network company is also involved in the transportation of crude oil, refined oil and natural gas pipelines, and is responsible for the national oil and gas pipeline network operation and scheduling. And fulfill the responsibility of the society to disclose the remaining pipeline and storage capacity. The newly formed state-owned pipeline company is included in the central enterprise series supervised by the SASAC. The SASAC, PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC shareholding ratios are 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10%, respectively.

The establishment of the national pipe network company has many advantages

It is reported that the reason why the national pipeline network company was established is to promote the formation of an “X + 1 + X” oil and gas market system with upstream multi-agent and multi-channel supply of oil and gas resources, efficient centralized collection and transmission of intermediate pipeline networks, and full competition in the downstream sales market. Of course, everything that is done is an important part of deepening the reform of the oil and gas system and the reform of the pipe network operation mechanism.

The establishment of the national pipeline network company has played a key role in controlling repeated investment, accelerating the construction of pipeline networks, and the capacity of oil and gas transportation. In terms of oil and gas prices that people are generally concerned about, the national pipeline network can promote the formation of a market-based oil and gas price mechanism and make oil and gas prices more reasonable.

Some analysts believe that the establishment of a national pipeline network may be detrimental to central oil companies, but in the long run, it is very beneficial to the entire domestic market. For the entire oil and gas market, it is conducive to increasing the main body of the oil and gas market, facilitating fair competition between oil and gas production and supply companies, fair dialogue between supply and demand sides, improving supervision of monopoly links and optimizing the structure of the oil and gas market.