Recently, more and more residents have reported that the cost of gas has risen significantly, adding additional economic pressure to the cost of living. The main reason for this change is that the state is comprehensively promoting the adjustment of the upstream and downstream price linkage mechanism of natural gas.
This adjustment may have some minor impacts in the short term, but in the long run, it is conducive to the rational allocation of energy resources and the interests of people's livelihood.
According to the unified deployment of the National Development and Reform Commission, all provinces, cities and counties must complete an adjustment of residential gas prices by the end of June this year.
This means that in the coming period, residential gas prices in most parts of the country will continue to rise, which is closer to the upstream procurement cost.
Previously, due to various reasons, the downstream terminal sales price could not reflect the changes in the upstream gas source price in a timely manner. For example, Nanjing has only adjusted prices once in four years, resulting in the city gas company having to rely on increasing prices to industrial and commercial users to subsidize the loss of civil gas sales.
The distortion of upstream and downstream price differences, coupled with the sharp rise in international oil and gas prices in recent years, has made the operation of domestic gas companies more and more stretched.
Now, the establishment of the linkage price adjustment mechanism will make the price signal more reasonable, promote the optimal allocation of resources in the industrial chain, and benefit the general public.
In Shenzhen, for example, the price of Tier 1 residential gas has been raised by 20% to 3.41 yuan/cubic meter.
As an energy source for people's livelihood, the rise in gas prices will inevitably bring certain economic pressure to some households. It is estimated that if an ordinary family of three consumes 600 cubic meters of gas per year, it will pay about 15 yuan more per month; High consumers with an annual gas consumption of more than 1,740 cubic meters need to pay about 53 yuan more per month.
However, when the new price transmission mechanism is implemented in most regions, subsidies will also be implemented for low-income households and rural "coal-to-gas" households to ease their living burdens such as heating. Therefore, although it is inevitable that there will be some impact in the short term, the impact of this round of price adjustment should be manageable overall.
Needless to say, price distortions in the past have caused a lot of trouble to the entire natural gas industry chain. Upstream enterprises have been unable to continue to invest in long-term losses, and downstream operators have lost money and transfused blood all year round.
With the full implementation of the new round of price transmission mechanism, all links in the industrial chain will re-rationalize the price relationship, and the market will better play the role of resource allocation. In the long run, this will be conducive to the stability of energy supply, so that the general public can continue to obtain people's livelihood energy at a reasonable cost, which is in the fundamental interest of everyone.
Admittedly, there are some minor effects in the short term. However, if the dilemma of serious disconnection between upstream and downstream prices can be solved, the fundamental way of the problem can be completely solved.
The next few years will be the window period for the adjustment of the price mechanism, and families can appropriately adjust their gas consumption habits, and at the same time, they should also believe that the linkage price adjustment under the leadership of the government will definitely maximize the benefits.
After all, people's livelihood energy has always been a key area of national security. Only by making the price mechanism operate reasonably and healthily can the sustainable development of the entire industrial chain be rooted and the supply of energy for people's livelihood can be fundamentally guaranteed.
Therefore, although gas prices will continue to rise in the short term, this adjustment will eventually benefit the majority of residents and achieve the optimal allocation of resources under the reasonable price transmission mechanism.