Revitalizing China's petroleum industry through reorganization: Will it work?

In reforming the structure of its petroleum and petrochemical industries, the Chinese government aims to reduce the internal rivalry of the previous organizations and improve the efficiency of the new state oil companies. The changes, however, do not directly address the fundamental issues facing the petroleum industry and have not completely ruled out the internal competition between two large state oil companies, which is likely to be uneconomical and is hardly market-driven. If the government starts to address the fundamental issues while continuously reforming the structure of the industry, it can accomplish much more in improving industry efficiency, promoting free market competition, and finally, revitalizing the entire industries.