The municipal Development and Reform Bureau recently issued a notice regarding a hearing on adjusting residential pipeline natural gas prices and establishing an upstream-downstream price linkage mechanism in the urban area, which is scheduled to take place in late October 2026. This hearing will cover the Jiangcheng District and Yangjiang Hailing Bay New Area, collectively referred to as the urban area.
Back in May 27th of this year, the bureau had already released a draft plan for public feedback, outlining the proposed adjustments to residential natural gas tariffs and the formation of a linkage mechanism between purchase and retail prices. According to the announcement, the current residential natural gas price standard sits at 0.966 yuan per cubic meter, with a dedicated distribution price of 1.17 yuan per cubic meter for household use. Retail sales follow a tiered pricing structure with three distinct price brackets.
The proposed adjustment plan introduces changes based on cost monitoring data, which reflects the market dominance of Yangjiang China Resources Gas Co., Ltd., accounting for 99.3% of the urban pipe network's residential gas usage. In contrast, China Resources Gas Yangjiang Hi-tech Co., Ltd. only contributes 0.7% to this consumption. Following the provincial regulation that mandates "same city, same category, same price" for gas distribution and residential sales in urban areas, and considering fair burden distribution, the adjustment will uniformly apply the distribution price of Yangjiang China Resources Gas Co., Ltd. to the entire urban pipe network for residential natural gas sales pricing.
While maintaining the existing tiered volume thresholds, two alternative pricing schemes have been proposed, both utilizing the 2023-2024 comprehensive average gas purchase price of 3.12 yuan per cubic meter from Yangjiang China Resources Gas Co., Ltd. as the baseline. The first option sets the permitted rate of return at 6%, resulting in an approved distribution price of 0.87 yuan per cubic meter. The second option maintains the permitted rate of return at 7%, leading to an approved distribution price of 0.91 yuan per cubic meter.
Compared to the current pricing benchmarks, these new proposals will reduce the financial burden on residents. Under the first option, the urban residential distribution price decreases by 0.30 yuan per cubic meter from the current standard, with each tier's retail price dropping by 2.68%. For instance, a typical first-tier household consuming 360 cubic meters annually would see their rate fall from 4.10 yuan to 3.99 yuan per cubic meter, translating to yearly savings of 39.60 yuan per household. Non-residential users such as schools, social welfare institutions, and elderly care facilities, which are priced under the residential rate, would enjoy a reduction from 4.51 yuan to 4.39 yuan per cubic meter, saving 0.12 yuan per cubic meter.
The second option retains the current 7% permitted rate of return on distribution. Although this alternative also lowers consumer costs, the first option delivers a more significant price cut and benefits a broader spectrum of users. According to survey data, adopting the first option would rank Yangjiang's residential gas prices sixth province-wide, whereas the second option would place it fourth, tying with Maoming city.