Reuters: China's NDRC Plans Domestic Fuel Pricing Reform Amid Low Crude

China plans further reforms of its retail fuel pricing system, the country's central economic planning commission said on Tuesday, part of efforts to make prices more market-driven.

The world's second-largest oil consumer has taken big steps this year in reforming the oil and gas sector. For the first time, China has allowed independent companies to import crude oil and export refined fuel, breaking the long dominance by state refiners Sinopec Corp and PetroChina.

The National Development and Reform Commission will "postpone" an adjustment of retail gasoline and diesel prices that was expected on Tuesday, it said in a statement on its website. Instead, it plans to speed up improving the fuel pricing system under the "new environment" of lower oil prices.

"When the price of oil is low, maintaining a fundamentally stable price for refined products helps restrain the too-fast growth in oil consumption and energy structural change, spur environmental protection, and improve air quality," the commission said, without providing any details for its plans. MORE