The establishment of a vice ministry-level energy office was confirmed Friday with the report by Xinhua News Agency that it would be headed by Ma Kai, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planning body.

Ma Fucai, former general manager of the country's biggest oil company China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) who resigned after a gas field accident in Chongqing killed 243 people in 2003, is also expected to be named as one of its deputy ministers.

The new office will replace the Energy Bureau of the NDRC and will work to secure overseas oil and gas reserves, resolve the chronic electricity shortage, stabilize coal supplies, enforce industrial energy efficiency, and promote nuclear power and renewable energy resources.

The government is restructuring the energy industry after dismantling the Ministry of Energy in 1993 and the setting up the Energy Bureau in 2003.

Critics say the current bureau, which has less than 30 staff, is too weak to oversee the industry, and it has been blamed for failing to control runaway oil imports, over-expansion of new power projects and inefficient energy consumption.

It has also failed to resolve disputes between coal production and power generation sectors that have contributed to widespread blackouts in recent years. Much of the administrative power for the energy industry is scattered between different government organs.

The new office will report directly to the State Council, China's cabinet, and, though still under the NDRC, it should have a stronger say in decision making.

The Ministry of Energy was set up in 1988 but dismissed five years later because its functions overlapped with other departments such as the then State Development Planning Commission.

(China Daily April 30, 2005)