The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has signed a deal with the Tianguan Group, a major ethanol maker based in Henan Province, to invest in ethanol production as it tries to expand in the renewable energy sector. Producing ethanol from non-grain materials demands more complicated technology and more investment. With CNPC's investment, Tianguan can overcome technology obstacles or conduct mergers and acquisitions to obtain the technology needed.

In China, the prices of refined oil products are set by the central government, the refiners—private or local-government-owned—find it unprofitable when the price of crude is high. Soaring global oil prices have led to small refiners drastically cutting down on production, forcing Sinopec to fill the void. But because of capacity limitations at its plants, there is a rising gap between demand and supply. This year, Sinopec may import more oil products from abroad if necessary. The company imported 60,000 tons of gasoline in September and sold it at a lower price.

On Monday, workers completed a tunnel under China's Yangtze River for a major gas pipeline that will run from the southwest province of Sichuan to Shanghai in east China. With a diameter of 3.08 meters and a length of 1,405 meters, the tunnel was laid about 20 meters beneath the riverbed and connects two gas wells on each bank of the Yangtze in a section of Yichang City, Hubei Province. The 2,203-kilometer pipeline, with the mainline extending 1,700 kilometers, is another "energy artery" to fuel the booming but energy-insufficient eastern areas following the first west-east gas project. The pipeline is expected to channel 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from Sichuan's Puguang gas field to central and eastern regions, including Chongqing Municipality, the provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, and Shanghai.