The State Pipeline Network Group Took Over The Operation Of "Three Barrels Of Oil" Oil And Gas Pipeline And Officially Connected To The Grid

According to the state pipeline network Group Corporation, on September 30, the group company held a signing ceremony for the delivery of oil and gas pipeline network assets and operation handover. So far, the national pipeline network company announced the formal operation, and China's main oil and gas pipelines have finally realized the grid connected operation.

According to the previous agreement, the asset transaction agreement and capital increase and share expansion agreement jointly signed by state pipeline network group and PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC, China Chengtong, China Guoxin, social security foundation, China Insurance Investment Fund, China investment international and silk road fund will take effect at 0:00 on October 1.

Starting from October 1, the state pipeline network group will take over the relevant oil and gas pipeline infrastructure assets (business) and personnel originally belonging to the three major oil companies, and formally connect to the grid for operation. This also marks a key point of China's oil and gas market reform -- the market-oriented reform of oil and gas pipeline network operation mechanism has achieved phased results.

Liu Manping, an expert of the China oil and gas think tank alliance, believes that the national pipeline network group has taken over relevant assets and businesses, and the formal grid connected operation is the end point. It marks that with the efforts and active cooperation of all parties, the establishment of the national pipeline network group has been basically completed in the past year, and the market-oriented reform of the oil and gas pipeline network operation mechanism has been implemented from a blueprint Become a real sense of the main body of market operation.

"At the same time, it is also a starting point. Compared with the previous reform in other aspects of the oil and gas industry, the establishment and operation of the national pipeline network group can be said to be a reform of" pulling one engine and moving the whole body ". It will certainly reshape the operation rules and system of the entire oil and gas market, and is the starting point for building a new operation system." He said.

Establishment of innovation mechanism

It is worth mentioning that the establishment of the national pipeline network adopts the mode of investment and trading, instead of the traditional method of free transfer of state-owned equity. After the capital injection, the national pipeline network has a good financial fundamentals. At the same time, there will be a huge financing demand in the future, which has the potential for mixed ownership reform.

In December 2019, the state pipeline network company was officially established in Beijing. In the following seven months, after various negotiations and negotiations, the state pipeline network finally reached an agreement on capital injection and related asset transactions with all parties. On July 23, PetroChina and Sinopec successively issued the announcement of asset sale and foreign investment; on September 28, the corresponding announcement was formally approved at the shareholders' meeting held by the two companies.

According to the information disclosed publicly, PetroChina invested 149.5 billion yuan to acquire 29.9% equity of national pipeline network. PetroChina shares in the national pipeline network in the form of asset investment, and the original value of relevant assets is 222.9 billion yuan, and the evaluation value is 268.7 billion yuan (20.6% premium).

Sinopec plans to invest 47.1 billion yuan to acquire a 9.42% stake in the national pipeline network. Sinopec's capital contribution is also in the form of asset injection, but the original value of Sinopec's injected assets is 26.7 billion yuan, and the assessed value is 47.1 billion yuan (with a premium of 76.3%), corresponding to Sinopec's contribution.

In addition, Sinopec's natural gas company will also invest 22.9 billion yuan to participate in the national pipeline network and obtain 4.58% equity of the national pipeline network, which is also in the form of asset injection. Sinopec's sales companies also sell products pipeline and ancillary facilities assets to the national pipeline network.

Together with the assets sold by Sinopec's Guande company, Sinopec and its subsidiaries will acquire a total of 14% equity of national pipeline network and receive 52.7 billion yuan of cash paid by national pipeline network.

As for CNOOC, since the assets of CNOOC gas power group, the main injection enterprise, are not listed, the specific asset injection situation is not disclosed. From the equity (2.9%) obtained by CNOOC, it is equivalent to 14.5 billion yuan of investment. Different from the other two companies, CNOOC mainly injects LNG terminals, some of which are still in the early stage of work or construction.

It is worth mentioning that at present, the capital injection stage of national pipeline network group has not been completed, and Kunlun energy (00135. HK), a subsidiary of PetroChina, has not yet carried out asset injection. The company owns 60% of the Beijing pipeline company and operates the Shaanxi Beijing natural gas pipeline, which is very important in northern China.

At present, "three barrels of oil" owns 46.8% of the shares of the state pipeline network company, nearly half of them. With the investment of China Chengtong, China Guoxin, social security foundation, China Insurance Investment Fund, CIC international and silk road fund, the equity of state pipeline network group will be quite dispersed.

At the same time, because China's oil and gas demand, especially the demand for natural gas, will continue to grow. At present, China's receiving terminals and long-distance pipelines are still unable to meet China's growing demand for natural gas consumption, and their capital demand will be huge. In addition to various ways of financing, such as debt financing, etc., it is also necessary to carry out a variety of debt financing methods.

"The establishment of the national pipeline network company reflects the idea of" diversification of investment entities of state-owned capital ". The shareholding ratio of major shareholders is relatively dispersed. In this way, it can not only guarantee the absolute control of state-owned capital, but also prevent the state-owned pipeline company from forming a new monopoly due to" one share dominating " Wu Gangliang, a researcher at the China enterprise reform and Development Research Association, told reporters.

In the future, the main channel and the national power network can be separated "Separate the infrastructure and form an independent state-owned wholly-owned company or an absolutely state-owned capital holding company, so as to ensure a safe and stable energy supply," Wu said

The establishment is of great significance

At the establishment meeting, Zhang Wei, chairman of the state pipe network group, explained the significance of the establishment of the pipeline network company.

He said that the establishment of the state pipeline network group is a major measure to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's new energy security strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation", as well as a major deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on deepening the reform of oil and gas system and the operation mechanism of oil and gas pipeline network.

"With the support and guidance of the national development and Reform Commission, the state owned assets supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and other national ministries and commissions, the national pipeline network group has officially put into operation on October 1. It will carry out unified allocation, operation and management of major oil and gas pipeline infrastructure in China, and will further promote the formation of" x + 1 + X "oil and gas market-oriented operation mechanism, so as to ensure national energy security and improve energy utilization Efficiency makes a new contribution. " He said.

In the past, almost all the assets of China's oil and gas pipeline network belonged to the three major oil companies, and PetroChina accounted for the vast majority of them. The establishment of national pipe network group is to separate the pipeline transportation from upstream resources and downstream sales.

Therefore, the pipeline network assets can be fairly opened to the third-party market entities, the commodity attributes of energy can be more clearly presented, the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources and the market vitality of competitive links can be released.

At the same time, after the establishment of the national pipe network group, it will realize the interconnection of the pipe network in a real sense and become a "national network". After that, it is possible to allocate oil and gas resources nationwide. In the construction of pipeline transportation facilities, it is also conducive to reducing repeated investment, accelerating the construction of pipeline network, improving oil and gas transportation capacity, and ensuring the safe and stable supply of oil and gas energy.

While the state-owned pipeline network has been formed ahead of time, the group has begun to take action.

In July this year, BP signed a contract with China's urban gas companies to directly supply gasification LNG from abroad to corresponding regions. This is also the first time that an international energy company has been processed in China's domestic LNG terminal and directly sold natural gas resources to gas company customers.

This integrated mode of natural gas sales is also the first time in China. "In the past, downstream gas companies did not have LNG terminals in their hands, so it was almost difficult to directly purchase international LNG resources." "It can be predicted that if the assets of the national pipeline network company are opened fairly, some receiving terminals should be able to open the window period and supporting pipelines, and this mode should be popularized."

After the official operation of the national pipeline network, the market entities of the oil and gas industry chain including the national pipeline network group will have to face and adapt to a new oil and gas market. The results will also greatly affect China's current oil and gas operation mechanism.