On June 27, the Municipal Development and Reform Commission held a press conference on the natural gas price linkage in Yichang, introducing the relevant situation of the natural gas linkage plan and the construction of the gas coordination facility during peak hours in Yichang, and analyzing the trend of natural gas prices.
“The non-residential natural gas price linkage plan implemented last year has expired on May 10. According to the purchase and sales contract between China Petroleum and other gas-operated enterprises in the middle and late April, the comprehensive price of the upstream natural gas portal stations has increased by about 20%,reaching the starting conditions of the linkage scheme once again."Deng Mingliang, member of the Party Committee of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission and chief economist,introduced that the document issued by the Municipal Development and Reform Commission on June 24 would launch a new round of linkage plan for non-resident natural gas in urban areas.
According to the latest linkage plan, there is no linkage in the price of residential gas, and the price of 2.67 yuan/cubic meter for the first class for residential gas will continue to be implemented. The sales price of non-resident gas is adjusted to 0.48 yuan/cubic meter,and that for vehicle gas use is adjusted to 0.35 yuan/cubic meter.
Specifically, there are four sales prices for non-resident natural gas prices: the retail price of non-residential natural gas is adjusted from 3.31 yuan/cubic meter in winter to 3.28 yuan/cubic meter; the wholesale price of non-residential natural gas in urban Yichang is adjusted from 3.09 yuan/cubic meter to 2.93 yuan/cubic meter; the retail price of natural gas for vehicles was adjusted from 3.77 yuan/cubic meter to 3.75 yuan/cubic meter; the wholesale price of natural gas for Korneng and Kelisheng is adjusted from 2.83 yuan/cubic meter to 2.81 yuan /cubic meter. The linkage time starts at 0:00 on May 10, 2019 and ends at 24:00 on October 31, 2019.
"Because of the need of repeatedly measurement and discussion in the previous plan, we have not had time to introduce a new linkage plan before the deadline of the last one. Before that, we have notified all urban natural gas enterprises to continue to implement the original linkage plan and wait for the new one. After the introduction of the new linkage plan,corresponding subsidies will be made.” Peng Zhichun, head of the Price Control Section of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said that in order to fully implement the price policy, the Municipal Development and Reform Commission has notified the relevant natural gas management enterprises that from 0:00 on June 28 to August 13, on the basis of the current linkage plan,the price of natural gas for vehicles will be reduced by 0.02 yuan/cubic meter again, and the implementation price will be 3.73 yuan/cubic meter. From 0:00 on August 13, the price of this linkage would be restored to 3.75 yuan/cubic meter of this linkage.
In addition, the reporter learned from the press conference that Lineng Company is making great efforts to promote the construction of phase II project of gas storage and peak hours adjustment.At present,the engineering equipment of Lineng Company in the phase II project has been prepared and storage tanks are being manufactured on site, and the investment of more than 70 million yuan has been completed.The project is planned to be completed by the end of September this year and begins gas storage before the onset of winter in October. By then, natural gas reserves will have reached 18 million cubic meters of storage capacity, which can meet the 21-day demand of urban areas, and will effectively alleviate the shortage of natural gas supply in urban areas.(Reporter:Liu Yue)