China’s first natural gas price hike in three years will boost the revenues of importers led by PetroChina by billions of dollars and cut mounting losses caused by selling the fuel at artificially low rates mandated by the government.

The long-awaited hike will be part of a series of upward revisions by 2015 as the government liberalises its gas pricing regime to spur production and import of the cleaner-burning fuel and meet China’s environmental goals, analysts say.

“Yes absolutely,” said Simon Powell, head of Asia Oil and Gas Research at CLSA in Hong Kong, when asked whether he expected China to further raise gas prices. “You are going to see another 20 per cent increase on top of the 15 per cent.”

The average increase of 0.26 yuan to 1.95 yuan (32 cents) per cubic metre is slightly more than the last raise of 0.23 yuan per cubic metre in 2010. The adjustment three years ago was a 25 per cent increase from a very low base. PetroChina’s shares have soared after Beijing said that industrial and commercial gas users will see a 15 per cent jump in prices from July 10.

Shares of mainland gas distributors including ENN Energy Holdings have also surged on hopes that increased imports and production will help boost their sales volume.

The Chinese government is aiming to boost the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix to 8 per cent by 2015 from around 5 per cent currently.

Further price hikes are unlikely to erode industrial and commercial demand for gas in the world’s second-biggest economy. Factories and businesses have very limited freedom to switch to coal – already 20 per cent cheaper before the latest gas price hike – due to government pressure to use cleaner fuels, analysts say. Chinese gas importers purchased a total of 42.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) from overseas last year, up more than 30 per cent compared with 2011 and a nearly 10-fold increase from 2007. Imports already accounted for 27 per cent of total consumption last year.