Natural gas direct supply policy

Direct supply of natural gas means that users directly purchase natural gas from upstream natural gas suppliers for production or consumption, and will not resell it. Literally, "direct supply of natural gas" was first seen in the Guiding Opinions on Regulating the Price Management of Urban Pipeline Natural Gas and Provincial Natural Gas Transportation (Draft for Comment) issued by the National Development and Reform Commission on March 20 12. The opinion draft puts forward: "Encourage upstream production enterprises to provide direct supply to city gas companies and large users." In fact, in practice, the direct supply of natural gas appeared earlier. That is, at the beginning of the West-to-East Gas Pipeline in 2004, the state planned 10 gas-fired power plants along the pipeline, becoming the first batch of "direct users" of natural gas in China. Of course, due to various reasons, such as insufficient gas source and high gas price, most of these projects are not running smoothly after they are put into production.

In recent years, with the expansion of natural gas market, the topic of direct supply of natural gas has once again become a hot topic. How to accelerate the utilization of natural gas and increase the proportion of natural gas in primary energy consumption has become a conscious choice for all localities to promote high-quality economic development. First, as a high-quality, efficient, green and clean low-carbon energy, natural gas has outstanding comparative advantages in controlling air pollution, coping with climate change and promoting the energy consumption revolution. Second, the import of natural gas resources in China is gradually opening up, encouraging social capital to enter, the international resource price continues to fall, and the supply is expected to increase substantially, which has the resource-based advantage of large-scale utilization; Third, the downward pressure on the economy has increased, and the cost of gas consumption in the real economy has increased. The voice of rationalizing and reforming the natural gas price formation mechanism and reducing the energy cost including natural gas is getting higher and higher; Fourth, direct supply users have large demand and strong bargaining power.

The reform of price mechanism is one of the core contents of natural gas system reform. Through direct supply, increasing user-side competition, and gradually exploring the formation mechanism of natural gas price marketization, it can generate a powerful driving force to force the reform of natural gas system and become a breakthrough to promote the reform of natural gas system. In order to straighten out the price relationship of each link in the natural gas industry chain, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice on Adjusting the Price of Natural Gas, the Notice on Adjusting the Price of Non-resident Natural Gas in Stock in the Next Year, and the Guiding Opinions on Regulating the Price Management of Pipeline Natural Gas and Natural Gas Transportation in Cities and Towns of the Province in March, 20 13, which clearly stated that "upstream production enterprises should be encouraged to directly supply gas to city gas companies and large users, reduce intermediate links, avoid layer-by-layer supply and reduce gas supply costs". From April 1 of the same year, the prices of stored gas and incremental valve stations were merged to comprehensively rationalize the prices of non-residential gas. In 20 16, the state successively promulgated the Measures for the Management of Natural Gas Pipeline Transportation Price, the Measures for the Supervision and Examination of the Pricing Cost of Natural Gas Pipeline Transportation (Trial) and the Guiding Opinions on the Supervision of Gas Distribution Price, requiring that the intermediate sales link should not be profitable, clarifying the profit level of pipeline transportation companies, and "management in the middle" began to appear. After the "three barrels of oil" and local pipe network companies approved the price according to the new method, the pipeline transportation fee dropped sharply, and the gas distribution fee of the city gas company was adjusted accordingly. On June 20 17, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and other departments 13 issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Utilization of Natural Gas (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), which clearly defined "establishing a mechanism for users to choose resources and gas supply routes independently", allowing users to choose resources and gas supply routes independently, reducing intermediate links and gas consumption costs. 2065438+May 2008, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice on Rationalizing the Price of Valve Stations for Residents, rationalizing the price of gate stations, unifying the price of benchmark gate stations for residents and non-residents, and releasing the price reduction bonus. So far, natural gas price reform has been promoted layer by layer, and the policy environment and external situation for promoting direct supply of natural gas have become clear.