China's central government plans to expand a pilot natural gas pricing scheme in the south to gas-rich Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, the state-run Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

The National Development and Reform Commission introduced the reforms in Guangdong Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at the end of 2011. The reforms link the city-gate price of imported pipeline gas and gas produced onshore in the two areas to the market price of imported fuels traded in Shanghai in 2010.

The report did not say when the scheme would be introduced in Sichuan and Chongqing. Analysts previously told Interfax that lingering fears over inflation meant that Beijing was unlikely to pursue an extensive rollout in the short term.

If widely introduced, the new mechanism would hike prices beyond what consumers are presently able to afford, Zhou Xizhou, head of China energy for consultancy IHS CERA, told Interfax in September.

The first expansion of the pilot scheme may also include the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Economic Rim regions, the report said, citing a researcher with China National Petroleum Corp. The Yangtze River Delta, which encompasses Shanghai and includes parts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, was responsible for nearly 18 percent of China's economic output in 2009.

The central government may permit prices to rise nationally, while allowing individual provinces and regions to set their own prices as the country transitions to a more liberalized gas pricing market, the report said, without elaborating.