Financial Monitoring of Electricity Companies, Towngas Company, Retail Prices of Auto-fuel and Prices of Domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas

The Financial Monitoring Division (FMD) deals with the financial aspects relating to the electricity and towngas companies and monitors retail prices of auto-fuel and prices of domestic liquefied petroleum gas.

Monitoring of the Electricity Companies
Monitoring of the Towngas Company
Monitoring of the Retail Prices of Auto-fuel (updated)
Monitoring of the Prices of Domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas

Monitoring of the Electricity Companies

The Government has entered into two Scheme of Control Agreement (SCAs), one with The Hongkong Electric Company Limited and HK Electric Investments Limited (referred to collectively as "HEC"); and another with CLP Power Hong Kong Limited and Castle Peak Power Company Limited (CAPCO) (referred to collectively as "CLP").

The SCAs set out the obligations and rights of the power companies, but are not franchises. They do not define a supply area for either company, nor do they exclude newcomers to the market. By signing the SCAs, the power companies undertake to provide sufficient facilities to meet present and future electricity demand of their respective supply areas. At the same time, they are entitled to receive returns at a permitted rate based on their fixed assets. The SCAs also provide the framework for the Government to regulate the power companies and monitor their corporate affairs to protect the interests of consumers. Pursuant to the SCAs, the power companies are required to seek the approval of the Executive Council for certain aspects of their development plans, including projected basic tariff levels, and the agreement of Government to their tariff adjustments. Meanwhile, technical, environmental and financial performances of the power companies are subject to annual auditing review conducted jointly by the Government and the companies.

The existing SCAs are the greenest SCAs ever, focusing on the promotion of energy efficiency and conservation and renewable energy. Under these SCAs, the Government and the power companies have introduced Feed-in Tariff and RE Certificates Schemes, as well as revamped and introduced various energy saving programmes, all of which fully reflect the Government’s commitments to combating climate change.

To get ready for opening up the market, the Government is making all the necessary preparation, so that potential new suppliers can be introduced when the requisite market conditions emerge in the future. The power companies will co-operate with the Government to conduct the interconnection and grid access studies, and publish their segregated cost data in the current regulatory period (i.e. from 2018 to 2033).

The FMD performs the following functions :

to review the periodic development plans submitted by the power companies;
to conduct annual auditing review of the companies' performance;
to examine annual tariff adjustment proposals; and
to conduct scheduled periodic interim reviews of the terms of SCAs.

Monitoring of the Towngas Company

On 3 April 1997, the Government has entered into a three-year Information and Consultation Agreement (ICA) with The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Ltd. The company supplies towngas to most part of the territory. It is not subject to any price or profit regulation by the Government. The agreement is designed to increase the transparency of the company's tariff-setting mechanism and justification for tariff increases. It also stipulates certain procedures for The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Ltd. to consult the Government in the event of tariff adjustments and major system additions and disclose certain corporate information to the public on an annual basis so as to ensure that consumers' interests are protected. The ICA has been extended for three years for the ninth times. The current Agreement is effective as of 3 April 2024 and shall continue in effect until 2 April 2027.

The FMD performs the following functions :

to ensure that adequate financial, operational, environmental and safety information is made available to the public by the company; and
to seek clarification and justification from the company for any tariff increases.

Monitoring of the Retail Prices of Auto-Fuel

Stable energy supply is crucial to Hong Kong's economic and social operations. Public transportation, air passenger and cargo services, and electricity supply, etc, are directly related to energy supply. The top priority of the Government is to ensure the stability of Hong Kong's energy supply.

Retail prices of auto-fuel in Hong Kong are determined by oil companies having regard to market principles and operating costs. The Government is mindful of the concerns across various sectors regarding auto-fuel prices in Hong Kong and has been monitoring whether changes in local retail prices of auto-fuel are in line with the trend movements of international refined oil product price. We have been in close contact with oil companies and urged them to promptly adjust prices in tandem with international refined oil product price movements.

Comparing the trend movements of local retail prices of auto-fuel and the international refined oil product prices

With effect from 1 April 2026, to facilitate the public to monitor trends of local retail prices of auto-fuel among oil companies as well as international prices of refined oil products so as to assess whether these prices are moving in tandem and the extent of such changes, the Environment and Ecology Bureau (EEB) will release on a weekly basis the trend movements of retail prices of auto-fuel, net of walk-in discounts, of unleaded petrol and diesel of the local oil companies, together with the trend movements of the international refined oil product prices for the corresponding period.

The charts indicate the following:

7-day moving average of local retail prices (i.e. pump prices) for unleaded petrol / Euro V Diesel (Note 1)
7-day moving average of local retail prices with walk-in discounts for unleaded petrol / Euro V Diesel of various oil companies (Note 2)
7-day moving average of Singapore Gasoil (Platts) Futures prices (Note 3)

	Unleaded petrol	Euro V Diesel
Caltex:	Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge
Esso:	Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge
PetroChina:	Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge
Shell:	Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge
Sinopec:	Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge

Note:

1. The local retail prices in the charts above are pump prices before taking into account any discounts.

2. The local retail prices in the charts above are pump prices net of walk-in discounts without any other discounts to specific customers (such as credit card promotion or oil company membership card promotion).

3. Due to the terms and conditions of the subscription agreement signed with S&P Global Platts, the Government is unable to disclose specific figures regarding the Mean of Platts Singapore. The Singapore Gasoil Futures prices (such as NYMEX Singapore Gasoil (Platts) Futures) in the charts above are used as a proxy for refined oil product spot prices because: (a) the price trends in unleaded petrol and gasoil are usually similar, and (b) commodity futures prices are generally closely related to spot market prices.

To understand the trend of adjustments of local retail prices of auto-fuel, it should be noted that apart from the import price and Government duties, the local retail prices of auto-fuel are also affected by changes in operating costs e.g. discounts, government rent, staff costs, transportation and maintenance of oil terminal and petrol filling stations (PFSs).

Import prices statistics of major oil products

Importers are, by law, allowed 14 days to file declarations with the Government. The Census and Statistics Department would verify and process the information and release import price statistics for a given month with a time lag of around four weeks.

The respective import price statistics and charts by the Census and Statistics Department are available at the website of the Legislative Council - Panel on Environmental Affairs.

Foster competition

While the retail prices of auto-fuels are determined by the market, the Government will endeavour to maintain a stable fuel supply, enhance competition by removing barriers to entry into the fuel market. The Government has taken a series of measures since 2000, to facilitate the new market entrants including:

(a)	removing the requirement for bidders of PFS sites to hold import licence or supply contract;
(b)	re-tendering all existing PFS sites upon expiry of their leases, instead of renewing the leases to the existing operators; and
(c)	depending on the land supply situation, tendering PFS sites in batches consisting of 2 to 5 sites per batch. The new tendering arrangement facilitates new entrants in acquiring a certain number of sites for PFS to achieve economy of scale for an effective competition in the auto-fuel retail market.

Since the introduction of the new tendering arrangements, two new operators have obtained 35 out of the 61 PFS sites put up for tender and successfully entered the market. The share of the three main operators in terms of the number of PFS has reduced from over 93% to about 70%. These figures demonstrate that the new tendering arrangements have effectively enhanced the competition in auto-fuel retail market.

To further enhance competition in Hong Kong’s auto-fuel market, the Government has also introduced the following measures:

(a)

To improve the display of price information at PFSs, for PFS sites being / to be tendered / retendered, the Government has required, through making it a lease condition, that a price information board as approved by the EEB indicating the price of petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas and other petroleum products (if applicable) sold in the PFS shall be erected within the PFS; and

(b)

To facilitate the private sector to convert privately-held land to PFS use with a view to enhancing competition, the Government provides assistance to facilitate communications between applicants and the relevant government departments; as well as the provision of technical advice by government departments to the applicants during the process of planning permission / amendment of plan application (if applicable) of private land for PFS use and the relevant land procedures. For details, please contact EEB at ebenq@eeb.gov.hk.

To enhance price transparency of auto-fuel prices, the Government has, since 2008, commissioned the Consumer Council to post onto its website the local retail prices and information on various types of discounts and promotional offers provided by oil companies, and to launch the "Oil Price Watch" website and mobile application in 2020. These measures aim to facilitate consumers to compare prices and discounts offered by respective oil companies, so that they can make informed choices that are suitable to their needs, thereby enhancing price competition.

Monitoring of the Prices of Domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas

In a free market economy, the prices of domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Hong Kong are determined by LPG suppliers having regard to commercial practices and their operating costs.

There are five domestic LPG suppliers in Hong Kong, with IP&E GBA Limited (IP&E, ExxonMobil LPG brand licensee), DSG Energy Limited (Shell Gas licensee) and Sinopec (Hong Kong) Gas Company Limited (Sinopec) providing both cylinder and piped domestic LPG while two other suppliers (viz. New Ocean Energy Holdings Limited and Concord Oil Hong Kong Limited) only provide cylinder domestic LPG. The suppliers review their product prices regularly. In this regard, DSG Energy, once every three months (i.e. at end of January, April, July and October), sets the listed prices of domestic piped LPG and wholesale prices of cylinder domestic LPG for the coming three months by forecasting the import prices for the coming three months in the light of the latest international LPG prices, and making positive or negative adjustment for any difference between the actual import prices and the forecast import prices in the last review. In addition, DSG Energy reviews its operating costs once every twelve months according to this mechanism. Meanwhile, IP&E and Sinopec conduct independent regular reviews on the listed prices of domestic piped LPG and wholesale prices of cylinder LPG according to their respective pricing adjustment mechanisms taking into account various factors, including LPG import prices, operating costs, equipment maintenance, market dynamics, etc.

In monitoring the prices of domestic LPG, the Government makes reference to the movements of international LPG prices (Saudi Arabia monthly exporting Contract Price) and local LPG import prices and assess whether the price adjustments are reasonable. The Government understands and is concerned about the impact of domestic LPG prices on the public and therefore encourages the industry to enhance transparency on price setting.

The retail prices of domestic cylinder LPG are set by individual distributors. The Census and Statistics Department has compiled statistics on average retail prices of cylinder domestic LPG in its monthly submission to the Legislative Council – Panel on Environmental Affairs. The relevant information is accessible at the link below:

Average retail prices statistics (Legislative Council)

For the suppliers (Note 1) providing domestic piped LPG, their historical domestic piped LPG price data since 2016 are summarized in the table below:

Effective date	DSG Energy (Shell prior to 2018) (Note 2)	Sinopec (Note 2)
Effective date	$/cu.m.	$/cu.m.
End of Jan 2016	30.65	30.65
End of Apr 2016	31.97	31.97
End of Jul 2016	30.61	30.61
End of Oct 2016	33.36	33.36
End of Jan 2017	34.90	34.90
End of Apr 2017	33.93	33.93
End of Jul 2017	32.35	32.35
End of Oct 2017	37.96	37.96
End of Jan 2018	36.16	36.16
End of Apr 2018	34.80	34.80
End of Jul 2018	37.68	37.68
End of Oct 2018	39.61	39.61
End of Jan 2019	33.35	33.35
End of Apr 2019	37.86	37.86
End of Jul 2019	34.38	34.38
End of Oct 2019	36.77	36.77
End of Jan 2020	38.94	38.94
End of Apr 2020	34.02	34.02
End of Jul 2020	36.68	36.68
End of Oct 2020	39.56	39.56
End of Jan 2021	41.22	41.22
End of Apr 2021	40.42	40.42
End of Jul 2021	43.47	43.47
End of Oct 2021	48.12	48.12
End of Jan 2022	44.59	44.59
End of Apr 2022	49.59	49.59
End of Jul 2022	45.57	45.57
End of Oct 2022	42.04	42.04
End of Jan 2023	44.36	44.36
End of Apr 2023	45.90	45.90
End of Jul 2023	41.76	41.76
End of Oct 2023	45.81	45.81
End of Jan 2024	46.52	46.52
End of Apr 2024	48.01	48.01
End of Jul 2024	46.94	46.94
End of Oct 2024	47.70	47.70
End of Jan 2025	48.36	48.36
End of Apr 2025	47.34	47.33
End of Jul 2025	48.10	48.10
End of Oct 2025	46.74	46.74
End of Jan 2026	47.28	47.28

Note

1. IP&E explains that it sells piped LPG to the pipeline operators, rather than to the end consumers direct. The actual selling price to the end consumers is in turn determined by the pipeline operators. The piped LPG price is one of the commercial terms with IP&E’s operators, and is therefore confidential and proprietary in nature. IP&E is hence unable to make public the relevant information.

2. Price information is collected from DSG Energy's and Sinopec's websites.

3. The price information of respective LPG suppliers is for reference only and does not represent the actual service charge of individual customer. For the actual service charge of each service area / estate, please contact the respective LPG suppliers / operators directly.

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04/01/2026 - 12:00