Shanghai, December 24 (Gasgoo.com) China's top economic planner is working to fine-tune the country's fuel pricing mechanism to make price changes more frequent and reflective of global crude markets, Reuters reported yesterday.
Earlier this year, China put in place a new fuel pricing regime, allowing authorities to adjust retail fuel prices if a 22-day moving average of global crude price had risen or fallen more than 4%.
Sources say the Chinese government is working to tweak the regime. Many aspects are expected to be changed, including a reduction of the number of days used to calculate price movements.
Most oil companies have welcomed the new price regime since it offers them more guaranteed refining margins. But others complained that the 22 working days were too long to reflect the refining cost change quickly.
The National Development & Reform Commission, China's top economic planning body, said yesterday that the nation will further perfect the current fuel price regime and make it more oriented to the market.
China has raised retail fuel prices five times and cut them three times this year.
