Thoughts on the construction of China's natural gas market reform and development demonstration zones in Sichuan and Chongqing

In order to adapt to the new situation of China's oil and gas system reform and achieve high-quality development of the natural gas industry, it is necessary to construct a number of high-level demonstration zones. Based on the concept of China's natural gas market-oriented reform and development demonstration zones, leading advantages of Sichuan and Chongqing in terms of natural gas resources, infrastructure, natural gas consumption and utilization, market-oriented reforms, and energy metering and pricing are discussed along with the goals and promotion measures for the construction of such demonstration zones. Data revealed that an exact high-level demonstration zone should be a general term for a region which plays a leading role in the aspects of industrial scale, supply guarantee, vitality, fairy trade, etc., and in such a region, the government, natural gas production, transportation, storage and marketing enterprises, users and stakeholders should be taken as the main participants. The Sichuan-Chongqing region has always played an exemplary role all over China in such areas as natural gas resource exploration and development, infrastructure construction, natural gas utilization, market-oriented trading, and energy measurement and pricing, and in terms of development trends, such leading and demonstrative role will continue. Measures should be taken to promote efficient use of natural gas, to integrate industrial chains, to develop green chemicals, LNG utilization and natural gas peak-shaving power generation utilization, and to open up new areas of urban gas utilization to build a demonstration area of comprehensive utilization of natural gas. Measures, e.g., creating competitive conditions and innovating transaction varieties should be adopted to build demonstration zones for the reform of natural gas market-oriented trading. The construction of transmission channels and the orderly promotion of the fair opening of infrastructure, as well as the construction of a demonstration zone for the construction of a natural gas production, supply, storage and marketing system are needed. Multi-party coordinated advancement should be adopted so as to form good implementation conditions with government-led and cooperation between the supply and use parties, and successful demonstration experiences and other measures should be tried often to build demonstration zones for natural gas energy metering and pricing.