China News Service, April 14th, according to the National Development and Reform Commission website, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Natural Gas Reserves" (hereinafter referred to as "opinion"). The "Opinions" suggest that the construction of gas storage infrastructure should be accelerated to further enhance the reserve capacity.
Data map: natural gas pipeline construction site. China News Agency reporter Sultan
"Opinions" said that in recent years, China's natural gas industry has developed rapidly, and natural gas consumption has continued to grow rapidly, increasing its importance in the national energy system. At the same time, the problems of lagging construction of gas storage infrastructure and insufficient reserve capacity have become prominent, which has become a prominent shortcoming that restricts the safe and stable supply of natural gas and the healthy development of the industry.
In order to implement the “Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Coordinated and Stable Development of Natural Gas” (Guo Fa ﹝ 2018 ﹞ 31) and the “Guiding Opinions of the State Council on the Establishment and Improvement of the Energy Security Reserve System” (Guofa ﹝ 2019 ﹞ 7), accelerate the Gas infrastructure construction to further enhance reserve capacity, with the consent of the State Council, the following implementation opinions are now proposed.
One is to optimize the planning and construction layout and establish and improve the standard system.
——Strengthen the overall planning and layout. According to the relevant plans for oil and natural gas and the requirements of the State Council for the construction of various major parties ’gas storage capacity, formulate and publish a national annual gas storage facility construction major engineering project list; each province (autonomous region, city) compiles and releases a provincial-level gas storage facility construction special plan Propose a list of gas storage facility construction projects in the region. The gas storage tasks of urban fuel gas enterprises are included in the provincial-level special plan to build gas storage facilities for the city. Guide areas with large gaps between peaks and valleys and rapid growth in demand to appropriately raise construction goals, and reserve enough development space for orderly construction in phases and batches. Adjust and stop the operation method of the gas storage task layer by layer decomposition, avoid the miniaturization and decentralization of the construction of gas storage facilities, and eliminate potential safety hazards from the source.
—— Make clear the key construction tasks. Support areas where the peak-to-valley difference exceeds 4: 1, 6: 1, 8: 1, and 10: 1, and increase the construction target step by step. Highlight the scale effect and give priority to the construction of underground gas storage, northern coastal liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving stations and large-scale LNG storage tanks in key areas. Encourage existing LNG receiving stations to expand the scale of storage tanks, encourage urban agglomerations to jointly build shared gas storage facilities, and form regional gas storage peaking centers. Give full play to the characteristics of LNG storage tanks that are suitable for storage, transportation, and flexible transportation, and promote the pilot demonstration of multimodal transport of LNG tanks, and take multiple measures to improve gas storage capacity.
——Establish and improve the industry standard system. Accelerate the establishment and improvement of uniform and standardized industry standards for the design, construction, acceptance, operation, and decommissioning of gas storage facilities, and form a standard system for gas storage facilities as soon as possible. The geological information disclosure mechanism of developed oil and gas fields, salt mines and underground aquifers will be improved to facilitate the selection of investment sites for construction of gas storage facilities. For oil and gas fields and salt mines intended to serve as underground gas storages, according to law, accelerate the cancellation of mining rights, and actively explore new models of underground space leasing.
The second is to establish a sound operating model and improve the return on investment channels.
——Promote the independent operation mode of gas storage facilities. In principle, underground gas storage facilities should implement independent accounting, professional management, and market operation. Encourage gas storage facilities operating companies that are operating to take the lead in implementing independent operations, realize the obvious value of gas storage, and form a typical demonstration effect. Promote gas storage facility management companies to improve internal management mechanisms, carry out model innovation and product innovation, and improve operating efficiency and profitability.
——Perfect investment return price mechanism. For independently operated gas storage facilities, gas storage service prices, natural gas purchase and sales prices are all formed by the market. Encourage gas storage facility operation enterprises to recover investment and obtain profits through market-based methods such as renting storage capacity and using seasonal price differences, and speed up the construction of a market mechanism for gas storage peaking auxiliary services. For urban gas enterprises to build their own self-contained supporting gas storage facilities, the investment and operating costs can be included in the overall consideration of urban gas distribution costs, and reasonable benefits can be given.
——Improve the channel of terminal sales price guidance. Due to the increased costs of purchasing natural gas from storage facilities and leasing storage capacity, urban gas enterprises can reasonably guide the sales price of natural gas terminals. For urban agglomerations to jointly build and share supporting gas storage facilities, gas-fueled enterprises in cities and towns can lease storage capacity in proportion, and the lease cost can be rationalized through terminal sales prices. Explore the establishment of a mid-to-long-term contract mechanism linked to off-peak price in order to form a reasonable seasonal price difference and create a market environment with reasonable returns for gas storage facilities.
The third is to deepen the reform of institutional mechanisms and optimize the market operating environment.
——Accelerate infrastructure interconnection and fairness and openness. Promote the interconnection of infrastructure such as natural gas pipeline networks and LNG receiving stations. For gas storage facilities connected to main pipeline networks and local pipeline networks, pipeline transportation enterprises should give priority to access and ensure transportation. The supporting gas storage of pipeline transportation enterprises should be open in principle and provide services to all qualified users.
——Promote the construction of a gas storage product trading system. Guide Shanghai and Chongqing Oil and Gas Exchange Centers to accelerate research and development of gas storage capacity and other trading products, and connect with the capacity reservation and trading mechanism to ensure that the pipeline network connected to the gas storage facility is open and fair. The true market value of gas service. Actively develop the secondary trading market and improve the efficiency of gas storage facilities. Actively guide the sales volume of gas storage facilities into the trading center for public trading. Guide non-minsheng natural gas into the trading center for public trading, find the real market price through the market, and form a reasonable seasonal spread.
The fourth is to increase policy support and promote the rapid improvement of gas storage capacity.
—— Approval policies for land, etc. Optimize the approval process for land use for construction of gas storage facilities, planning approval, environmental assessment and safety assessment and other related approval processes to improve the efficiency of approval. All localities should ensure the demand for land for the construction of gas storage facilities, and make overall arrangements for newly constructed land for gas storage facilities constructed in phases and batches. If the project land used for the construction of gas storage facilities meets the "Approach for Land Use", it can be used for land use procedures, but it does not comply with the "Pay for Use".
——Fiscal, taxation and financial policies. On the basis of accurate measurement and identification, the company will provide support policies for the bottom gas of underground gas storage enterprises to achieve gas storage targets. Gas storage facility operating enterprises shall apply the tax refund policy for the end of the value-added tax deduction at the end of the period according to the current policy. Support local government special bond funds for the construction of qualified gas storage facilities. Encourage financial institutions to provide various financial services and support the construction of gas storage facilities. Support gas storage companies to issue bond financing, and support gas storage projects to issue project income bonds.
——Investment policy. Before the end of 2020, for the construction of emergency gas storage facilities in the key regions that guarantee an average of 3 days of gas demand in the administrative area, an investment subsidy within the central budget will be granted, and the subsidy amount will not exceed 30 %. Encourage qualified regions to introduce investment support policies, and provide financial subsidies or incentives for the construction of gas storage facilities.
The fifth is to implement the main responsibility and promote the completion of the target tasks.
——Conscientiously implement the main responsibility. Strengthen the follow-up inspection of gas storage capacity building, and regularly report the progress of work. Local governments, enterprises and relevant responsible persons who have failed to promote their work can be interviewed for accountability if necessary. Enterprises that fail to perform their peak-shaving responsibilities according to the regulations will be punished according to the situation according to the law, and enterprises that have serious circumstances such as the suspension of gas supply to the people ’s livelihood and other serious circumstances will be punished according to law and regulations.
Fully consider the operating characteristics of gas storage facilities, and explore the implementation of policy measures to reduce the operating costs of gas storage facilities. When granting or changing fuel gas concession rights, various regions should include the performance of gas storage responsibilities and obligations in the concession agreement. For gas companies that do not meet the gas storage capacity and the project plan is not implemented, the concession rights shall be withdrawn or not granted according to law. For enterprises and regions with better start-up conditions and faster progress but temporarily unable to achieve the construction goals, temporary transitional measures such as the signing of interruptible contracts should be taken to compensate for peak shaving capacity.
——Establish and improve the assessment system. Formulate the target assessment system for gas storage capacity building tasks. The task of building gas storage capacity of upstream gas supply enterprises shall be assessed by relevant departments of the State Council; the task of building gas storage capacity of urban gas enterprises and local emergency gas shall be assessed by relevant departments of the State Council in conjunction with the provincial people's government.
The people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) should strengthen overall planning and coordination, establish and improve the working mechanism for promoting the construction of gas storage capacity, and ensure the smooth progress of construction tasks. In principle, the gas storage facilities constructed by multi-party joint ventures shall confirm the gas storage capacity according to the share ratio in principle. The gas storage capacity confirmation plan shall be clarified in the existing or supplementary contracts and agreements. Under the premise of interconnection, urban gas enterprises that implement group operations can be evaluated by the group company as a whole, and the gas storage capacity of the group's off-site construction and leasing can be confirmed, but double calculation is not allowed.