Energy analysts have blamed the country's "monopolistic natural gas market" for one of the most serious gas shortages in decades, made worse by high gas consumption amid freezing temperatures and snowstorms in the south.

"The lack of a competitive mechanism in China's gas market has given major gas suppliers few incentives to expand gas output at current low prices," Lin Boqiang, professor at the Center of China Energy Economics Research in Xiamen University, told China Daily yesterday.

The gas crisis has raised public doubts about the country's monopolistic gas market and the capacity of PetroChina and Sinopec, the country's main gas suppliers, which issued emergency gas in several provinces and regions including Chongqing municipality and Zhejiang province due to the sudden increased consumption and limited storage.