PipeChina Reveals Stage-1 Structure
According to an official statement of China Oil and Gas Piping Network Corporation (PipeChina), the basic establishment of its corporate structure is shaping up before the Sep. 30 deadline preset by SASAC. The functioning arms include 12 pipeline operating companies, 6 LNG terminal operating companies and two provincial natural gas pipeline companies in Guangdong and Zhejiang.
Since CNPC and Sinopec announced in July to transfer related assets to PipeChina, the shaping-up of China’s largest piping operator is accelerating, but many details were still missing from the picture. SASAC also requested NOCs to accomplish the whole asset delivery before September 30, 2020 in concerns of the slower-than-expected progress. By far, except Kunlun Energy’s Shaanxi-Beijing piping network (Shaan-Jing I, II, III & IV), all the main trans-provincial pipelines have been transferred to the control of PipeChina, while 10 terminals, including 7 in service and 3 in construction, were also delivered. Meanwhile, according to the statement, two provincial natural gas network grids of Zhejiang and Guangdong were also included into the first stage landscape of PipeChina’s corporate structure, and those two provinces were also motivated to implement pioneering and demonstrating adjustment measures to prepare themselves for the transfer.
By the end of 2020, PipeChina’s first stage establishment is expected to function as scheduled, and after 1-2 years of optimization and integration, this midstream giant will be capable to optimize the piping network running rules, to fully utilize the native functioning as a public service platform, to guarantee the open, fair and transparent marketized environment to all participants, to achieve the unified management and operation of the main piping network, to schedule the piping network construction plan and accelerate the progress of major projects, to guide the fusion of local piping network to join PipeChina through market behaviors, to secure the winter supply system and China’s natural gas midstream transportation and energy storage and security.
