Due to the huge shock wave brought about by the new crown epidemic to the global economy, international crude oil and natural gas prices have been declining all the way, and crude oil futures once experienced unprecedented negative oil prices. In response, Xue Guanglin, member of the CPPCC National Committee and founder of Guanghui Petroleum, a private oil group, submitted a “Proposal on Strengthening the Construction of National Petroleum and Natural Gas Storage Facilities” at this year’s two sessions of the People’s Republic of China. The window “copy the bottom”, “In the process of the country’s promotion of ‘new infrastructure’, it is very necessary to increase efforts to build national oil and gas reserve facilities.”
Xue Guanglin Commissioner said As China’s economy continues to develop rapidly, oil and gas imports have increased year by year, and its dependence on foreign countries has continued to increase. In 2019, China’s oil imports were 506 million tons, and its dependence on foreign countries was as high as 72%. The import volume of natural gas is 132.2 billion cubic meters, and the degree of external dependence is 43%. At the same time, China is the second largest oil and gas consumer in the world, with domestic crude oil consumption reaching 696 million tons and natural gas consumption reaching 306.7 billion cubic meters in 2019. “If there are international supply shortages and special events (such as regional war conflicts), hostile forces or international competitors will affect our country’s energy supply.”
he said China has built nine national oil reserves such as Zhoushan, Zhoushan Expansion, Zhenhai, Dalian, Huangdao, Dushanzi, Lanzhou, Tianjin and Huangdao, but the current oil reserves are only enough for 40 days of consumption. The International Energy Agency’s requirement for member countries is that the scale of its oil reserves should reach at least the level of net oil imports in the previous 90 days. “The United States, Japan, Germany, France, etc. have exceeded this standard, but there is a large gap in the scale of China’s existing reserve facilities, highlighting the serious problem of the shortage of reserve facilities.” Compared with the national petroleum strategic reserve base, China’s natural gas reserves Planning started later. This year, against the backdrop of natural gas prices plummeting by more than 60%, five departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly issued the “Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Natural Gas Reserve Capacity” in April, aiming to further accelerate Gas infrastructure construction to enhance natural gas storage capacity.
Xue Guanglin believes that all time should be taken to construct oil and gas strategic reserves and commercial reserve facilities and include them in the category of “new infrastructure”. Strategic reserves serve national energy security, commercial Reserves are used to balance international oil prices and save the country’s foreign exchange expenditures.
He suggested that the state should fund the construction of an oil and gas strategic reserve reservoir, combining a surface oil depot and an underground rock cavern, and reserve no less than three months of oil and gas. Compared with ground oil depots, underground cavern storage tanks are buried underground, with small oil and gas loss, strong earthquake resistance, and not easy to damage, able to resist war conflicts, etc.Risk, management is safer and more reliable. In order to meet national strategic needs, it is necessary to place national strategic reserves on the level of national energy security.
At the same time, enterprises and private capital invest in the construction of a commercial reserve bank, and the country uses market means to give reasonable prices for rent. As long as the private oil storage facilities that meet the national oil and gas strategic reserve requirements can be rented by the state. This can not only save the country a large amount of capital invested in fixed assets, but also actively promote the construction of social capital and enterprises to participate in the construction of a commercial reserve library, effectively and quickly improve China’s oil and gas reserves. “Commercial reserves can store a lot of oil when the oil price is low, and then sell it to the international market after the oil price rises to a high level, earning spreads, balancing international oil prices, reducing the cost of China’s oil and gas purchase, and saving national foreign exchange expenditure.”
Xue Guanglin suggested that a special energy fund funded by the state should be used to invest in the construction of oil and gas storage facilities to provide capital support for commercial reserves to purchase oil and gas resources. Whether it is a state-owned enterprise or a private enterprise, the acquisition of high-quality oil and gas resources overseas can also obtain strong capital support to help the construction of national strategic reserves and commercial reserves, complete market-oriented operations, and ensure the safety of national energy supply.