Wu Guihui, deputy director of the Energy Development Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the 2005 China International Gas Summit that the Chinese natural gas industry will be fully open to the outside world.
Wu Guihui disclosed that the exploitation of natural gas upstream, the pipeline construction in the middle reaches, and the entire industrial chain of the downstream market will be open to the outside world and foreign investors are encouraged to invest in China. China will also appropriately import overseas natural gas resources under the principle of “base on domestic and moderately introduce foreign resources”.
It is understood that China's natural gas industry has extremely limited foreign cooperation projects. Currently, except PetroChina and Shell are cooperating to develop the Changbei Gas Field, Shell and Unoco withdrew from the East China Sea Gas Project. Shell, Exxon-Mobil and Gazprom also withdrew from the West-East Gas Pipeline.
Wu Guihui also said that the Chinese government has also started preparations for the legislation of the Oil and Gas Law, and will cooperate with the industrial policies of the natural gas industry to jointly improve natural gas prices, taxation, and other policies and strengthen supervision of the industry.
It is understood that while the natural gas industry will be fully open to the outside world, the current situation in which the three major domestic oil companies use land and sea for natural gas exploitation is also expected to be broken. Li Liang, head of Sinopec Donghai Xihu Natural Gas Company, said that the demand for natural gas in China has risen rapidly. To expand production and narrow the gap between supply and demand in the future, the government has been considering encouraging PetroChina and Sinopec to mine offshore natural gas.