News Information

Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureaus, Urban Management Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureaus of all cities (including Dingzhou and Xinji cities), Construction and Transportation Administration Bureau of Xiongan New Area:

The Interim Measures for the Evaluation and Management of Pipeline Gas Franchise Operations in Hebei Province has been deliberated and approved at the 2nd departmental executive meeting in 2025. It is hereby issued and shall come into effect as of the date of issuance. Please strictly abide by and implement it.

Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Hebei Province

April 11, 2025

Interim Measures for the Evaluation and Management of Pipeline Gas Franchise Operations in Hebei Province

Chapter One General Provisions

Article 1 This measure is formulated in accordance with the "Regulations on the Administration of Urban Gas", the "Regulations on the Administration of Gas in Hebei Province", the "Measures for the Administration of Franchise Operations of Municipal Public Utilities", etc., in light of the actual situation of this province, to further standardize the franchise operation behavior of pipeline gas throughout the province, promote the healthy and orderly development of the pipeline gas industry, and enhance the intrinsic safety of the industry.

Article 2 This measure applies to the assessment and management of franchise operations of pipeline gas operation enterprises within the administrative region of the entire province.

Chapter Two: Evaluation Organization

Article 3 The Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Hebei Province is responsible for guiding and supervising the assessment of pipeline gas franchise operations within the administrative region of the province.

Article 4 The assessment work at the municipal and county levels shall establish a working promotion mechanism featuring departmental coordination and cooperation. Relying on the special task force for the rectification of urban and rural gas safety, an assessment working group led by the gas management department shall be formed to be responsible for the assessment of franchise operations within their administrative regions.

Article 5 The assessment working group shall establish a reporting and acceptance system for the assessment of pipeline gas franchise operations, publicly disclose the reporting phone number, mailbox or email address, and accept relevant reports.

Article 6 The municipal gas administrative department shall establish an expert database for the assessment of pipeline gas franchise operations, clearly define the conditions and standards for experts to be included in the database, and the experts shall include professionals in gas and law.

Article 7 Pipeline gas operation enterprises shall cooperate in the relevant work of franchise operation assessment and be responsible for the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of the materials provided.

Article 8 The assessment of franchise operations shall be organized once every two years, and an assessment file for pipeline gas franchise operations shall be established.

Chapter Three Evaluation Content

Article 9 The assessment of pipeline gas franchise operation includes

(1) Assessment of the franchise agreement and its performance;

(II) Assessment of the enterprise's business operations.

Article 10 Contents of the franchise Agreement and its performance assessment:

(1) The legality of the grant of the franchise right;

(2) The legality of the agreement terms;

(3) Completeness of the terms of the agreement;

(4) Completeness of the emergency response plan;

(V) The completeness of the conditions for temporary takeover;

(6) The performance of the agreement by both parties throughout the entire process;

(7) Other relevant contents that need to be evaluated.

Article 11 Contents of the enterprise's business operation assessment:

(1) Agreement performance and supply guarantee capacity;

(2) Planning compliance;

(3) Safety investment, production management and emergency response capabilities;

(4) Service quality and handling of user complaints;

(V) Other relevant contents that need to be evaluated.

Chapter Four Evaluation Methods

Article 12 The assessment working group shall, in light of the actual situation, formulate an assessment implementation plan, organize and carry out the assessment work, and prepare an assessment report. The assessment report can be commissioned to a third-party institution with the corresponding capabilities and experience for preparation.

The assessment report should include assessment principles, assessment contents, implementation status, conclusion opinions and rectification suggestions, etc.

The assessment of the franchise agreement and its performance shall be conducted in accordance with the "Regulations on Gas Management of Hebei Province" and the "Measures for the Administration of Franchise Operations of Municipal Public Utilities", and a "qualified" or "unqualified" opinion shall be issued for each item of the assessment content. Among them, one item that is "unqualified" is the "unqualified" of the franchise agreement and its performance.

The assessment of an enterprise's business operation should be conducted in accordance with the "Scoring Criteria". An assessment score of 75 or above is considered "qualified", while a score below 75 is regarded as "unqualified".

If either the franchise agreement and its performance or the business operation of the enterprise is unqualified, the conclusion of the assessment report should be "unqualified".

Article 13 After the assessment report is completed, the assessment working group shall randomly select experts from the franchise assessment expert database to form an expert group to review the assessment procedures and the completeness and legality of the assessment report, and issue an review opinion. The expert group should be an odd number with no fewer than five members, and can be randomly selected across cities. Among them, there should be no less than three gas experts and no less than one legal expert.

The argumentation should follow the principle of the minority being subordinate to the majority. Within the same assessment area, the argumentation for different pipeline gas operation enterprises should maintain the uniformity of the expert group.

Article 14 The assessment working group shall, in accordance with the expert argumentation opinions, revise and improve the assessment report and deliver it in writing to the pipeline gas operation enterprise.

Article 15 If a pipeline gas operation enterprise has any objection to the assessment report, it shall submit a written objection application to the assessment working group within 5 working days from the date of receiving the assessment report. The assessment working group shall accept the application in a timely manner and provide a written reply within 5 working days from the date of receiving the objection application.

After the assessment is completed, the assessment working group shall promptly submit the assessment report to the local people's government for approval and then form the assessment results. The assessment results shall be informed to the pipeline gas operation enterprise in writing and reported to the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Hebei Province level by level within 5 working days.

The assessment and notification process should strictly control the scope of knowledge to ensure stable gas supply and the safe operation of gas facilities.

Chapter Five Supervision and Management

Article 16 Where the assessment finds that the legality and completeness of the franchise agreement are not up to standard, the assessment working group shall submit a written report to the people's government at the same level and put forward rectification suggestions in combination with the work of standardizing and integrating pipeline gas operation enterprises. After approval, organize relevant parties to carry out rectification.

Article 17 Pipeline gas operation enterprises shall rectify the existing problems in accordance with the assessment report and report the rectification situation to the assessment working group for re-examination within 20 working days.

Article 18 Where a pipeline gas operation enterprise has any of the following circumstances, the franchise agreement shall be lawfully terminated, its franchise right shall be cancelled and a temporary takeover shall be implemented:

(1) Transferring or leasing the franchise right;

(2) Disposing of or mortgaging the property operated without authorization;

(3) Where there are major safety hazards and the rectification is refused or fails to meet the standards;

(4) Major gas safety responsibility accidents occur due to poor management;

(5) Suspending or ceasing business operations without authorization, seriously affecting public interests and safety;

(6) Other acts prohibited by laws and regulations.

Temporary takeover shall be carried out in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

Chapter Six: Accountability

Article 19 Where any illegal or irregular behavior of an enterprise is found during the assessment process, it shall be transferred to the relevant departments for punishment in accordance with the law and regulations. If it is found that the assessment staff have tampered with the scoring scores, forged assessment reports, or privately disclosed relevant information during the assessment process, etc., they should be transferred to the local discipline inspection and supervision department for handling. For units and individuals who obstruct the assessment and temporary takeover, if the act constitutes a violation of public security administration, the public security organ shall impose penalties in accordance with the law; if the act constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be pursued in accordance with the law.

Article 20 Where an assessment or temporary takeover is not carried out in accordance with the regulations, resulting in a safety responsibility accident, the relevant departments and personnel shall be held legally responsible.

Chapter Seven Supplementary Provisions

Article 21 The Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Hebei Province is responsible for the interpretation of these Measures.

Article 22 This measure shall come into effect as of the date of its promulgation and remain valid for two years.