If rocketing international oil prices and soaring domestic inflation this year make it an irresistible excuse to delay China's oil pricing reform, the current decline in the global oil market provides a rare opportunity to accelerate it.

To raise the country's overall energy efficiency in pursuit of sustainable development, Chinese policymakers must not let slip through their figures this window of opportunity to speed up market-oriented reform of the oil pricing system.

International oil prices have more than halved from a record high of $147 in July. Pressured by concerns that a looming global recession may derail oil demand growth this year and next, oil prices dropped by about 30 percent in October alone, almost the biggest ever monthly fall.