Due to historical reasons, oil price in our country is mixed with the contradiction between factorsincluding pricing mechanism, administrative monopoly, economics of scale, etc. There are still manyproblems with existing legal mechanism in the price control of petroleum, for instance, the controllingsubjects are lacking in professional standards, not energetic enough and not enjoying an independentstatus; unreasonable regulatory measures lead to the departure of regulatory actions and marketeconomic value.The ultimate goal of legal mechanism in the price control of petroleum is to realize marketmechanism regulating the oil price directly and state organs regulating the oil price indirectly throughthe maintenance of effective market competition. However, as to the imperfect competition in oilindustry, the government cannot let market mechanism regulate the oil price completely. Otherwise,monopoly prices in the real sense may produce.The legal mechanism in the price control of petroleum in our country should regard publicbenefits, market competition, appropriate intervention and democratic regulation as principles. Also,there should be corresponding control in natural monopoly and unnatural monopoly sectors. In naturalmonopoly sector, by introducing simulation competition through state intervention, the price of crudeoil would gradually develop from being priced directly by the country to being priced by enterprisesthrough simulation competition mechanism. In unnatural monopoly sector, by abolishingadministrative monopoly and introducing market competition, the pricing of product oil wouldgradually develop from state-fixed price and guide price to market mechanism price. Moreover,different regulatory power should be given to price-control institutions, industry regulators andenforcement authority of anti-monopoly law respectively. At the same time, some supportingmeasures should be added according to other factors affecting oil price in order to stabilize nationaleconomy, promote industrial development and vindicate the interests of consumers. |