Beijing eases oil, coal grip

There are growing indications that the Chinese government, alarmed by last year’s “oil crisis” – which actually may have been manufactured by state- owned oil companies – is finally getting ready to liberalize its energy policy and allow more competition.

China will gradually open oil exploration and extraction to private investors in the next five to 10 years, according to a new government policy study. If all goes well, this means the current triopoly of the upstream oil market by state-owned giants – Sinopec, PetroChina and CNOOC – would eventually be broken.

The Standard