China is shaking up its largest energy company by breaking apart its monopoly on natural-gas pipelines, which for years has discouraged the independent development of promising new supplies of the cleaner-burning fuel. State-controlled PetroChina Co. said late Monday that it will establish a new subsidiary containing some of its gas pipelines and that the business will eventually be sold. The subsidiary, known as PetroChina Eastern Pipelines Co., will hold the first and second phase of its West-East pipeline, which connects gas fields in China’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang with consumers in Shanghai to the east and in Guangdong to the south. PetroChina, the listed unit of China National Petroleum Corp., said that after the sale it won’t retain any ownership of the business, which it said will have 29 billion yuan ($4.65 billion) in net assets. PetroChina didn’t give a timetable or name a potential buyer. Those factors […]