Natural gas is a living energy that is closely related to people’s lives. Its price is as much concerned as the daily use of diesel oil. In recent years, in some cities with relatively high gas consumption, news of reforming natural gas prices has often been reported, and each price has Adjustment will always affect the general public’s consumer nerves.

Just yesterday, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice and decided that starting from December 26 this year, pilot reforms of natural gas price formation mechanism will be carried out in Guangdong and Guangxi, and market-oriented will be the biggest feature of this price reform.

How do the people view this price reform? In less than a week from the new year, does natural gas price reform kick off the prelude to price reform of resource products?

The reform pilot will change the existing pricing method based on “cost plus” to the “market net return” method, select benchmarking points and alternative energy sources, and establish a mechanism for linking natural gas and alternative energy prices. Lin Boqiang, director of the Energy Research Center of Xiamen University, explained the difference between the two valuation methods:

Lin Boqiang: The cost price starts from the first step. How much money do I dig, how much is transported, and how much is the final price, and the market pricing is the first one, and I look back.

According to the pilot reform mechanism, the prices of the highest natural gas stations in Guangdong and Guangxi were 2,740 yuan and 2,570 yuan per 1,000 cubic meters respectively. The National Development and Reform Commission explained in particular that the price of a unified gate station established by the country is the highest ceiling price, and both parties can freely negotiate and determine the actual transaction price without exceeding this price level. When the news came out, the residents of Guangdong and Guangxi were not worried:

Shenzhen Minjiao: I have heard that Shenzhen's gas price is the highest in the country. We hope that the reform will allow ordinary people to use economical and practical natural gas!

Shenzhen Minyi: In any case, as ordinary people, I think that reform is progress, but it cannot be a reform that raises prices. This is what I hope.

As the citizens said, the current natural gas prices in Guangdong and Guangxi are the most expensive. Taking Guangxi as an example, since there are no long-distance natural gas pipelines across the provinces, natural gas sources are mainly sourced from Sichuan, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia, and are introduced through the liquefaction of tank trucks, and then converted to gaseous users. Zhou Yongge, general manager of Nanning Zhongdan City Gas Development Co., Ltd., told reporters that at present, the civilian pipeline gas in Nanning City is uniformly priced at 4.37 yuan/cubic meter, which is higher than the developed eastern regions that have used for years:

Zhou Yongge: There are two aspects, one is that there must be a process of gas liquefaction in gas producing areas, some of which are lost, and then transported. The transportation costs are definitely more expensive than the pipelines. Then we go to our factory. We have to gasify this process. There is energy consumption.

In Guangdong, natural gas is mainly imported. Although the price of the highest gate stations in the two provinces (districts) specified here is higher than the current Australian natural gas prices imported from Guangdong, it is significantly lower than other gas prices, and the reform pilot will not push up the price of natural gas in the two provinces (regions) as a whole. Level. Lin Boqiang explained that this is why these two places will be selected as pilots:

Lin Boqiang: Natural gas is the cheapest pipeline, but it can't be reached in Guangdong and Guangxi. So its gas price is already high, and the impact of the reform on him is small.

In order to allow prices to reflect the market more accurately, the prices of natural gas portals are dynamically adjusted, adjusted annually based on the changes in the prices of alternative energy sources, and gradually adjusted to semiannual or quarterly adjustments. Shi Dan, deputy director of the Institute of Finance and Trade of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has some unrelenting implications for this natural gas reform. In 2006, China became a net importer of natural gas, and the degree of foreign dependence continued to increase. However, the price of gas sources in the international market has skyrocketed, and domestic natural gas prices have not been moved, and imported companies have suffered much from losses:

Shi Dan: The price of imported natural gas from abroad is relatively high. If we sell at the price of domestically produced natural gas, the company’s losses will be more serious. The enthusiasm of companies for importing natural gas is not very high. We have talked about the strategic level and some countries and regions, but the market is not willing to accept foreign natural gas, which is very unfavorable to our energy security protection.

In Lin Boqiang's view, the trial of natural price reform is more of a rainy day.

Lin Boqiang: Natural gas accounts for only 3% of the total energy, and reforms have little impact. Natural gas will grow substantially in the future because several pipelines are fast-growing. Natural gas should be the fastest-growing energy species in the next few years. It will be very difficult to reform at that time, and the impact will be very great.

The ultimate goal of China's natural gas price reform is to liberalize the ex-factory price of natural gas, which is formed by market competition. The government only manages the price of natural gas pipelines with natural monopoly properties. According to Lin Boqiang's prediction, the natural gas price reform can be pushed from the pilot to the country one year later, but this is not a worry:

Lin Boqiang: What I am more worried about now is whether the experience of Guangdong and Guangxi can be promoted in the country in the future. Is there sufficient representation? The second is that if it is really promoted, according to the current two alternatives, there will be a relatively large impact on domestic gas prices in the future. Although this impact is necessary, the burden on the people, especially residents, must be considered.