The Wall Street Journal adds that the divestment of the pipeline marks the beginning of the industry reforms that aims to make China's big energy companies leaner and more profitable. Analysts welcomed the move but said that more would be needed to reform the country's state-controlled energy giants. Bloomberg said that the sale of the pipeline is the first major divestment of either PetroChina or China National Petroleum since PetroChina sold its 20 billion yuan pipeline stake to institutional investors in 2013.