Analysis on competitiveness of natural gas interprovincial sales prices in Sichuan and Chongqing
Author of the article:MEI Qi1, WANG Fuping1, TAO Ling2, ZOU Xiaoqin1, ZENG Wei3, ZHOU Yueyang4
Author's Workplace：1. Natural Gas Economic Research Institute of PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, Sichuan 610051, China; 2. Marketing Department of PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610051, China; 3. CPECC Southwest Company, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, China; 4. Northeast Sichuan Operation Company of PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610051, China
Key Words：National petroleum and natural gas pipe network group company limited; Natural gas pipeline; Natural gas sales; Competitiveness
Abstract：With the completion of asset infusion from the major oil and gas companies, the “One National Gas Grid” is expected for China’s the natural gas pipeline network. This development will have profound impact on the natural gas sales. The sales are no longer restricted in one particular region, and natural gas resources will be supplied through multiple agents in the downstream market, where competition will be intensified and sales entities will be more diversified. In the meantime, the bargaining power of buyers is enhanced as well. In this paper, the inter-provincial gas sales path between Sichuan and Chongqing are divided into three major directions, namely “eastward”, “northward” and “southward”, taking into account the different transmission pipeline gas prices between the export gas and the inlet point gas in these flow directions. And the competitiveness of market price of natural gas in Sichuan and Chongqing exported to other provinces is analyzed against local gas price in these provinces and also against imported LNG resources. Results shows that “local consumption” is the preferred sales mode for Sichuan and Chongqing natural gas. The optimal outbound markets of Sichuan and Chongqing natural gas are Hubei and Hunan provinces. The abundant supply of natural gas has brought forth a constant effort to explore the local market potentials in Sichuan and Chongqing in order to expand the market size.