Shortened product oil price adjustment period or 10 workdays

On March 22nd, the State Council approved the “Opinions on the Key Work of Deepening Economic System Reform in 2012” by the National Development and Reform Commission. Among them, regarding the deepening of price reform of resource products, it is proposed that “the reform of electricity prices should be promoted steadily, the implementation of the residents' ladder price reform plan, market reform of refined oil prices should be deepened, and the reform plan should be launched at the right time”. The energy sector is expected to become a breakthrough in economic restructuring.

In the first half of the year, whether the price of electricity in the ladder can be transferred from temporary price measures to market pricing is still highly suspenseful.

On December 1 last year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued comprehensive measures to regulate coal and electricity prices, and simultaneously issued the "Guidance on the pilot electricity price for residential electricity use." According to the Guiding Opinions, the monthly electricity consumption of urban and rural residents is divided into three grades that meet the basic electricity demand, normal and reasonable electricity demand, and higher quality of life electricity demand. That is to say, the power of the user who covers the first 80% is the first tranche, and no adjustment is made; the user covering the previous 80%-95% is the second tranche, and the electricity price is appropriately raised, and the price per kWh is not less than 5 cents; The user who exceeds the second level of power is the third gear, and the price per power increase is not less than 3 cents.

Li Zuojun, deputy director of the Research Institute of Energy and Environment of the State Council Development and Research Center, told Southern Metropolis Daily that the residents' ladder price will change the single form of electricity price bureau, and electricity prices will increase step by step with the increase of electricity consumption. In other words, the more consumption, the higher the price. The red line division of these three grades is still more reasonable, and has not caused a heavy burden on residents. The resource prices have been low for many years and have not been well promoted. For some people who may be harmed, other systems must be matched and subsidies must be provided for vulnerable groups. When the electricity tariff rises reasonably, it will return the distorted price to a reasonable level, which will help optimize the allocation of resources and promote the development of the national economy. These benefits will greatly offset the losses of the interests of the minority.

In fact, the structural reform of electricity prices is not just a part of the electricity consumption of residents. The former vice chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Ruan Bingren, said: "Market coal and planned electricity will never be able to link smoothly and must be solved by means of reforms. We must rationalize the formation mechanism of electricity prices, and use auctioning to form prices for online access on the supply side. The use of competitive methods to form the price of electricity sales will ultimately benefit consumers. However, industry insiders believe that whether the reform can proceed is still suspenseful.

However, Peng Sen, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters during the "two sessions" that the "residential ladder price will be fully implemented in the first half of this year in China. All localities are formulating a plan to implement the ladder tariff, which will be implemented after the hearing process."

Refined oil price reform program to further improve the refined oil price reform to a more reasonable direction, that is, to achieve refined oil prices from the "lagging pricing" to the gradual transition to "real-time pricing."

During the two sessions of this year, Peng Sen, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, told Nandu that the National Development and Reform Commission has conducted a summary assessment of the operation of the current refined oil price formation mechanism introduced at the end of 2008. Based on this, it further researched and put forward a refined oil product reform plan. It is focused on shortening the price adjustment cycle, accelerating the frequency of price adjustments, and improving the operating mode of refined oil price adjustments to further improve the existing product oil pricing mechanism.

Regarding the new plan, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Energy Research Center of Xiamen University, who once participated in discussions on the refined oil pricing mechanism, believes that “22 days 4%” (Brent/Dubai/Xinta International crude oils only need to have a weighted average of 22 consecutive working days. The pricing mechanism for refined oil with a rate of change of more than 4% triggering a corresponding adjustment in domestic oil prices will usher in a new model, mainly to shorten the cycle of price adjustment, change the mode of price adjustment, and increase the transparency of the operation of the mechanism. In shortening the cycle of price adjustment, it is estimated that 22 working days will be shortened to 10 or 14 working days; the original “4%” reference price of crude oil may also be reduced accordingly. In changing the price adjustment method, when the international oil price is below 130 US dollars/barrel, the pricing power and price adjustment power will be devolved to several big oil giants.

Zhang Kang, a former researcher of the Exploration and Development Research Institute of Sinopec, told Nandu that formal reforms are not important. It is important to effectively implement marketization step by step. For example, liberalizing the crude oil market would be a good move.

“West-to-East Gas Pipeline” users will also be burning high-priced natural gas and natural gas price reforms are also “just around the corner”. Lin Boqiang said that the National Development and Reform Commission has followed the market-oriented reform idea and changed the original “cost plus” pricing method to the “market net return” pricing method to establish a dynamic adjustment linking natural gas and alternative energy prices. The mechanism will be piloted in Guangdong and Guangxi and will be promoted throughout the country. That is, the sales price of natural gas in the central market is determined by the weight value of fuel oil (60%) with the same calorific value (60%) and LPG (40%), and through the pushback method, the price of the highest gate station in other regions is finally obtained.

Lin Boqiang believes that the marketization of natural gas may cause its prices to soar. Because most of the natural gas used in Guangdong and Guangxi now comes from seaborne, they are already approaching market-based prices before the implementation of the pilot, so there is not much price fluctuation. During this round of national gas pricing reforms, users who use the West-East Gas Pipeline will face higher natural gas prices.

The step-by-step water pricing system has been fully implemented. With regard to the reform of water resources prices, the ladder price has now been clearly implemented.

“Full implementation of the ladder-type water price system for residential water use is the direction that water price reform follows.” Li Zuojun, deputy director of the Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that water prices have been low in the past and have not reflected the scarcity of water resources. It does not reflect the supply relationship, so in the reform, it must be an upswing process, otherwise China's water resources will become increasingly short-lived.

He also reminded that in the reform of water prices, it is necessary to grasp the “degree” and gradually promote the reform of water prices. While implementing the water price of the ladder, a set of matching economic subsidy system should be formulated for the vulnerable groups. Only in this way can the water price reform be successfully carried on. Similarly, if the rate of increase of electricity prices and natural gas prices is too high, it means that the space for the interests of downstream producers and consumers is impaired. At the same time, prices will also be fully raised.