PetroChina, Sinopec to seek private capital
Pursuing private capital for oil and gas projects is part of plan to reform monopoly sectors through increased competition and tighter regulation
PetroChina and Sinopec, the mainland's duopoly onshore oil and gas giants, will pursue capital investment from the private sector, the state-backed firms' chiefs said yesterday.
Their gas-related businesses will be a key area for co-operation, they said.
Zhou Jiping, chairman of PetroChina, the country's largest producer of oil and gas, said the move is part of wider industry reform to introduce more competition to enhance efficiency.
"[Beijing] has made it clear about the reform, which is to break monopolies, introduce competition and strengthen regulation," he told reporters before the opening of the annual National People's Congress meeting in Beijing.
Zhou said segments with natural monopolies will be subject to tighter regulation, and where competition can be introduced, regulatory frameworks will be established to guide private-sector participation.
After forming equity partnerships with firms such as asset managers in the western section of its first and second west-to-east gas pipelines, PetroChina will open up the eastern section for investment, he said.
Private capital is also welcome in gas pipelines that it will build, as well as projects to explore unconventional or difficult-to-extract oil and gas, which require more advanced technology and greater capital than conventional projects, Zhou said.