Three Reforms of China's Energy Management System

Over the past two decades, China’s energy management system has undergone three major reforms.
The first time was the establishment of the National Energy Commission in 1980, in charge of the Ministry of Coal Industry and the Ministry of Petroleum Industry. Due to the unclear division of functions between the Ministry of Coal and the Ministry of Oil and the National Energy Commission at that time, it was difficult for the National Energy Commission to fully exercise its comprehensive management functions. Therefore, it was announced in less than three years after its establishment.
The second reform was the establishment of the Ministry of Energy in 1988. At the same time, the Ministry of Coal Industry, the Ministry of Petroleum Industry, the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power, and the Ministry of Nuclear Industry were revoked. The National Unified Coal Mine Corporation, the Oil and Gas Corporation, and the Petrochemical Corporation were established respectively. Ocean Oil Corporation, Nuclear Industry Corporation, etc., and transferred the power of the above-mentioned major nuclear power divisions of the major head offices to the Ministry of Energy.
For this period of history, Liu Keyu, an expert from the China National Petroleum Corporation’s Institute of Economics and Technology, told reporters: “At that time, all state energy companies under the State Council had government functions, and the functions of the Ministry of Energy and the then State Planning Commission were duplicated and it was difficult to fully Because of its role, it was announced in less than five years after it was established. The revocation of the Ministry of Energy was a historical necessity, and it was the cancellation of the Ministry of Energy that directly affected the government's setting of energy management agencies. ."
In 1998, China’s energy management system ushered in the third major reform. The state withdrew the Ministry of Coal Industry, transferred its management functions to the Coal Industry Bureau under the State Economic and Trade Commission, and established China National Petroleum Corporation and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation. With China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the newly established National Petroleum and Chemical Industry Bureau will exercise its government management functions; at the same time, it will form a national power company and transfer the power management function to the State Economic and Trade Commission.
“The Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Water Resources retained the organizational reforms and embodied the guiding ideology of the country’s centralized and unified management of basic industries such as grain, water, and transportation facilities that are related to the overall national economy. However, it is also the energy of basic industries, but no professional competent department has been set up.” Qi Sanzhong, director of the consulting center of China National Petroleum Corporation, told reporters that there are objective reasons for this result, mainly because the former Ministry of Energy was revoked before the 1998 reform. In the case of vigorously withdrawing professional economic sectors, the addition of a professional economic department will bring difficulties to the abolition of other professional economic sectors, and will bring resistance to the reform of the entire government agencies. The establishment of the Ministry of Energy has missed a good opportunity.
In 2001, three years after the State Council’s agency reform program was run, the government cancelled the National Petroleum and Chemical Administration. Although the voices of various sectors of society at that time were very high, the Department of Energy did not come into being. In 2003, the State Council decided to establish the Energy Development Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission. In 2005, the National Energy Leading Group was established and a National Energy Leadership Group Office was set up to further strengthen integrated energy management and coordination.