China's textbook approach to regulatory reform of the natural gas market

Abstract

Natural gas, as a transition fuel, is considered essential for China's decarbonization and local air protection policy, yet the regulatory structure China relies on to promote gas use remains under-researched. China's central government recognizes the need for market-based reforms of the gas sector, but what regulatory and policy adjustments are necessary to reorganize gas supply on a market basis? The textbook approach to energy market reform, and its implementation in the European Union, provides important guidance on how to create a regulatory basis to support competition in gas supply, provided national institutional characteristics are taken into account. This article engages in a comparative analysis of China's gas market reform policies and their implementation at the provincial level, focusing on Guangdong, a laboratory of economic reforms in China. The analysis demonstrates that reforms in 2019–2021 integrated key aspects of the textbook model in China's gas regulations, including third-party access, price deregulation and ownership unbundling. However, the textbook is of limited use to address remaining institutional barriers to reform, including resistance of distribution monopolies to competition from state-owned enterprises. Guangdong's experience shows that reform is possible, but only if accompanied by institutional and pricing adjustments reconciling vested interests with competition.