China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and Kunlun Energy Co. Ltd. are the companies best-placed to capitalize on China's gradual easing of natural gas price controls, HSBC said on Monday.

The two state-owned companies, along with India's Petronet LNG Ltd., have the "best positioned exposure to unregulated natural gas volume growth in our Asia-Pacific oil and gas universe," HSBC said in a report released on Monday and titled Asia Natural Gas - simplifying and picking winners.