China has created a national oil and gas pipeline company, which brings together the long-distance pipelines owned by three state-owned energy companies, namely PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC. The new company named “China Oil & Gas Piping Network Corporation” will be in charge of investing in, building, interconnecting and operating oil and gas pipelines. It will be controlled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC).
Petrochina (part of the CNPC group) currently operates the oil domestic pipelines: 20,400 km for crude oil (about 69% of China’s total) and 11,400 km for refined products (about 43% of China’s total). In addition, CNPC owns and operates more than ¾ of the gas pipeline networks with a total length of 54,300 km (end of 2018).
The reform aims at separating transmission and sales activities to create an oil and gas market with effective transport through a unified pipeline network. The objective of the government is to provide a fair market access to infrastructure and to boost investment in oil and gas production.