National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) was said to convene several meetings to discuss the possibility to withdraw natural gas pipeline business from PetroChina (SHSE:601857) with a purpose to further rationalize the price of pipeline natural gas, disclosed people close to the matter.
NDRC may establish a national natural gas pipeline company to operate the business.
NDRC had discussed the independence of the business for several times previously but reached no results, but now it perhaps is a good opportunity due to the occurrence of the corruption scandal of PetroChina.
Currently, PetroChina has controlled the pipeline part, almost monopolized China's onshore gas extraction and undertaken imported natural gas from West Asia and Russia, it means the company controls the core part of the natural gas price change.
