Incremental reforms reshaping China's oil and gas sectors

Reuters reports that Beijing has quietly embarked on a series of experimental and incremental steps that may bring meaningful change to its state-run energy sector. Speculation of mega-mergers in the oil sector has proved unfounded, and Beijing-based industry executives say the bolder privatization proposals put forward by some government think-tanks –from opening mining rights to private bidders to breaking up PetroChina’s pipeline monopoly – look equally remote. Instead, Beijing is ushering in moderate pilot-based changes – granting private refiners oil licenses, encouraging a first private-led mega-refinery and overhauling the management of state-run assets – steps that seem fragmented but share a common goal of boosting efficiency across the sector.