Oil prices to be kept secret
13 March 2007
China intends to keep its internal formula for setting domestic oil prices a secret, The Standard reported. Bi Jingquan, vice head of the National Development and Reform Commission, announced that the public will only learn China's oil pricing scheme after it has been integrated with global prices, at an undetermined time. Prices have been substantially out of step with international markets for at least two years and analysts had hoped the new mechanism introduced this year would result in domestic prices tracking global prices more closely, but said the long awaited scheme has made little difference.