Petrochina has squeezed city gas distributors further by raising prices for contractual volumes
Letter from China: Price controls squeeze gas suppliers
Incomplete price reforms pose problems for both upstream and downstream players and threaten further shortages
Ten years after they began, unfinished reforms to gas pricing in China have pitched the country’s state-controlled upstream producers against downstream city gas suppliers, within a complicated system that is slow to reflect changes in international prices. Chinese utilities such as China Gas Holdings, Kunlun Energy and ENN Energy buy most of the gas they sell from NOCs Petrochina, Sinopec and Cnooc. Towards the end of every March, the NOCs and utilities sign sales contracts that cover supply for the next 12 months, including the summer and winter peak demand seasons, when consumption spikes for cooling and heating purposes respectively. Petrochina has suffered multibillion-dollar loss
Also in this section
4 December 2025
Time is running out for Lukoil and Rosneft to divest international assets that will be mostly rendered useless to them when the US sanctions deadline arrives in mid-December
3 December 2025
Aramco’s pursuit of $30b in US gas partnerships marks a strategic pivot. The US gains capital and certainty; Saudi Arabia gains access, flexibility and a new export future
2 December 2025
The interplay between OPEC+, China and the US will define oil markets throughout 2026
1 December 2025
The North African producer’s first bidding round in almost two decades is an important milestone but the recent extension suggests a degree of trepidation
