Natural gas, a sort of transitional resources for energy transition, is growing rapidly. However, its storage and transportation are in the face of multiple challenges, such as poor storage facilities, not very good connectivity among pipelines, and safety and environmental risks. Therefore, the path to the high-quality development in the natural-gas storage and transportation was proposed in terms of ensuring national energy security and stable gas supply, improving natural-gas utilization, and reducing a negative impact of carbon emission. Results show that (i) this quality development driven by energy revolution should emphasize four revolutions and one cooperation, with the promotion of energy transition and upgrading as the goal, the optimal allocation and integration of storage and transportation resources as the core, the value creation as the premise, the innovation as the fundamental driving force, and the sustainability as the essential path. And it is necessary to adhere to both quality and efficiency the first, and encourage the digital, informationized, international and sustainable development of the storage and transportation; and (ii) it is essential to fix on the application and innovation of green and intelligent technologies to the storage and transportation domain, to strengthen the construction and upgrading of gas pipelines, underground gas storages and peak-shaving facilities, to make better the networking infrastructure like storage, transportation and pipelines, to build an efficient gas market monitoring system and an information exchange platform; to establish the international energy corridor cooperation and innovation mechanisms based on the Belt and Road Initiative, and actively cultivate the storage and transportation globally-oriented talents. These measures are conducive to the development of the natural-gas storage and transportation toward safety, green, information, intelligence and efficiency, so as to achieve the smooth and stable energy transition and advance the flourishing and sustainable development of energy industry.

Technological innovations are the core element to develop new quality productive forces, and striving to this development has set the new request to innovations on natural gas. So, in an effort to fully stimulate scientific research vigour, enhance creative ability and innovation's efficiency transformation, and provide strong impetus for natural-gas industrial development in high quality, both current status and problems were analyzed in depth for the industrial innovations, and some countermeasures were formulated from the perspective of developing these new forces. Results show that, in terms of the forces' intension and strategic highlights, there exist several problems in the gas innovations, such as still room for improving the strategic layout and overall planning, training modes of leading talents, and technological management supportability. And taken the creative strategy as the guide, the talent cultivation as the source, and the thorough structural and mechanism reforms as the safeguard, three countermeasures are made, namely insisting on the science and technology as the primary productive force to construct the "361" project layout (30% for basic projects, 60% for application ones, and 10% for technique import or promotion ones, respectively), push forward the construction of high-level R & D platforms, and build mechanisms to foster major innovations; insisting on the talented personnel as the primary resources to clarify the cultivation objects of leading talents and cultivation ways, and optimize the echelon construction of back-up personnel; and insisting on the innovations as the first driving force to follow below creative principles on the natural gas, optimize collaborative security mechanisms, perfect mechanisms on check and initiate, and advise innovative surrounding with non-salary motivation as the core.

New elements induced from the development of new quality productive forces can offer pivotal support for petroleum industry in high-quality development, and are the key empowerment for this quality development too. So, based on the newly induced elements, concepts and modes from the forces, fresh empowerment ways to this industry with quality production, normalized governance, and industrial expansion were studied from technological innovations, management innovations and industrial-chain innovations in order to boost the quality development and ensure the quality of industrial reforms. Results show three problems in this empowerment, containing still room for creative level and insufficient transformation in technological achievements, unequal growth between digital and physical economy as well as imperfect growth mechanisms, and slow integration of upstream to downstream and inadequate system of industrial integration. To address these problems, some policies are put forward as follows (i) refining mechanisms in technological innovations to advance the sudden emergence of new quality productive forces, (ii) accelerating the digital-physical integration to achieve industrial transformation and upgrading, and (iii) expediting vertical fusion and perfecting optimal strategies on convergence for petroleum industry in high-quality development empowered robustly by new quality productive forces.

The global energy structure has been optimized all along, and the low-carbon transformation is forging ahead. New quality productive forces serve as the recent dynamic for economic and social growth. Their expansion is of great significance for traditional petroleum industry in sustainable development. Thus, the forces' intension and features were discussed for traditional petroleum enterprises whose opportunities and challenges were analyzed in the context the present situation. In addition, paths towards the industrial high-quality development were discussed from aspect of new quality productive forces. Results show that (ⅰ) aimed at weak oil and gas import channels, both channels of import source and diversified transportation should be broadened to mitigate supply risks; (ⅱ) the principal activities in oil and gas markets should be stimulated through innovations on market mechanisms in an effort to address one problem about low dominance of Chinese market; (ⅲ) for these enterprises also as information intensive ones, information-sharing platforms should be utilized to tackle longer production chains, mutually independent institutional sectors, and poor information exchange; (ⅳ) because of capital as the essential guarantee for new quality productive forces, the green finance and investment in combination with financing should be conducted for the enterprises with pressure reduction; (ⅴ) oil and gas resources will be surely the main part of energy consumption for a long time. As a result, exploration should be strengthened, and both emerging and future industries should be in continuous cultivation; and (ⅵ) given talents as the fundamental for the forces, both creative surrounding and innovation intensity should be improved and enlarged to nurture highly qualified talents as many as possible.

To construct a natural (shale) gas base with the production capacity of one hundred billion cubic meters (10¹²-m³-scale) in China is a great strategy for securing the energy security and supporting the rapid development of regional social economy. So, based on numerous successful practices in petroleum industry, a co-constructing and sharing mode was built for the national natural (shale) gas base with this scale, and some implementation routes were proposed. Results show that (i) this base construction involves an enormous industrial system and interest demands of plural subjects. Thus, guided by many co-constructing and sharing concepts, the mode should be established in plural subjects integrated with multiple elements; and (ii) there are five routes proposed, such as, to reinforce the top-level strategic design for this co-construction and sharing, to set up more modes between the government and enterprises, to perfect the co-constructing and sharing mechanisms among enterprises, to smooth the communication and negotiation channels for plural subjects, and to strengthen the early-warning system of this mode. It is concluded that the proposed co-constructing and sharing mode in a strategic view can plan the base construction as a whole, collaborate the benefits of plural subjects with effect, and promote not only development and utilization of natural (shale) gas but industrial chain's value, thereby driving the evolution of regional social economy and providing powerful support for advancing common prosperity.

For natural-gas industry, the harmonious development coupling security and economy with environmental protection is the key to push the transition of low-carbon energy. By introducing one theory of energy "trilemma", this paper analyzes the short-term security and stability, middle-term economic feasibility and long-term low-carbon environmental protection in this industry based on Sichuan provincial data from 2006 to 2021, and discusses the coupling degree among multiple factors. Results show that (i) the level of both security and stability is relatively high because of resource-endowed superiority conducive to surplus self-sufficiency, well developed provincial pipelines and powerful transportation guarantee. The level of economic feasibility is lower because price mechanisms under the mode of planned economy can hardly reflect a market's supply-demand relation in time, and harsh natural environment and scattered settlement in western China confines market expansion and reduces economic benefits. There is room for improving the level of low-carbon environmental protection since the increasing consumption proportion may lead to the synchronous carbon-emission increase, and the integrated development of natural gas and new energy will be an inevitable trend; and (ii) resulted from the three major reforms on quality, efficiency and power, the coupling degree has been on the rise, namely an optimal degree of both security and environmental protection since the association and coexistence of low-carbon energy transition and safe supply can be realized at the level of policy promotion; a higher degree of both security and economy as this supply may provide resource support for market expansion and maintain stable price, while prosperous markets stimulate energy exploitation and infrastructure extension; and a lower degree of both economy and environment protection since the carbon contribution to energy consumption and the increase in the proportion of low-carbon energy consumption exert incentive and hindering effects simultaneously on the coupling degree to offset each other.

Without carbon emission, the renewable hydrogen energy becomes a major carrier and an essential element to promote both transformation and upgrading of traditional petroleum industry and make the "dual carbon" goal come true. As a main part of new energies, its healthy and sustainable development cannot be achieved without any policy guidance and support. So, from the perspective on the whole industrial chain of hydrogen energy including production, storage, transportation, processing and utilization, the hydrogen-energy development in Sichuan-Chongqing area was surveyed. And industrial policies in this area from 2019 to 2023 were fully investigated so as to provide decision-making references for the government and guide the healthy development. Results show that (i) recently, some supporting policies on hydrogen energy have been issued intensively in this area, which roughly cover all key nodes of the whole industrial chain; (ii) in terms of development routes, hydrogen preparation is the focus in Sichuan whereas its application side in Chongqing; (iii) consumption policies in both areas emphasize on the field of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles; (iv) hydrogen energy subsidies in these two areas include the subsidies for industrial development, the awards of scientific and technological innovation platform, but various subsidy fields, specific requirements and subsidy standards in different cities; (v) regulations are relatively conservative and involve hydrogen in the list of hazardous chemicals; and (vi) only two cities in Sichuan-Chongqing area, such as Chengdu and Panzhihua, release rules about establishment and management of hydrogen-refueling stations.

As an important force for the stable energy supply in China, liquefied natural gas (LNG) has turned into a relatively complete industrial chain after years of evolvement. In order to actively cope with current challenges, such as low control of resource open, weak voice in import pricing, low independent control degree of shipping, small scale of single receiving station, and consumption scope to be expanded, it is necessary to promote both performance and safety level in this LNG industrial chain. So, some relevant strategic suggestions were made on the basis of comparison with international advanced levels and practices after systematically analyzing development status of the upstream, midstream and downstream in this chain. Results show (i) actively acquire overseas equity gas, construct a diversified, flexible and stable "overseas resource pool", and enhance control force of resources; (ii) concentrate on efforts to create a natural-gas price index, coordinate LNG procurement, and strive for discourse power of LNG pricing that matches import volume; (iii) accelerate the construction of a LNG shipping system, realize self manufacturing, management and inspection of home-made ships and self transportation of national gas, and enhance our independent control abilities in LNG transportation; (iv) strengthen overall planning and policy guidance, promote the construction of LNG receiving stations intensively and extensively, and enlarge the scale of single receiving station; and (v) further broaden the scale of LNG utilization in the fields of gas power generation along with vehicle and ship refueling, and better exert its value to the dual-carbon goal.

This paper reviews some difficulties, problems and successful practices in the process of promoting natural-gas price reform in China, and puts forward policy suggestions on further deepening this reform and improving price-forming mechanisms. And some conclusions are made as follows. First, both difficulties and problems faced in this reform include the continuously increasing dependence degree of natural gas on foreign countries, the high usage cost of imported gas, the insufficient ability of domestic market to pay for imported gas, the unbalanced regional economic development, and the low final consumption rate of residents, which will be the focus to be considered in deepening China's natural-gas price reform for a long time in the future. Second, successful reform practices include establishing the price system on natural-gas production, transportation, storage and marketing with gate station price management as the core, steadily advancing with the first easy and then the difficult in accordance with the goal orientation, combining government control and market regulation, and firming up price supervision of natural monopoly links, which will be of importance for a considerable period of time in the future. Third, perfecting the gate station price management focuses on improving the release and control combined policy, reducing the scope of controlled gas, expanding the scope of non-controlled gas, as well as clarifying the scope of supply and the responsibilities and obligations of all parties. Fourth, improving the price management of natural-gas infrastructure concentrates on further reasonably determining the allowable rate of return, establishing the standard cost system, and accelerating the promotion and implementation of the two-part charging price. Fifth, making the city-gas price management better is to set this price in accordance with international practices, further reasonably ascertain the allowable rate of return and the depreciation period of pipelines when approving gas distribution prices, and establish and upgrade the upstream and downstream price linkage mechanisms. Finally, it is essential to quicken the construction of natural-gas trading hub and the encouragement of natural-gas energy metering and pricing.

With abundant oil and gas resources, Central Asia has long been a prominent source for China to import natural gas. In recent years, some new situations on natural-gas markets, however, have presented in Central Asian countries. For example, these countries trim their natural-gas export to meet local demand and promote the long-term goal of carbon neutrality. Accordingly, it is predicted that the problem on insufficient gas sources will highlight in China-Central Asia natural-gas pipelines in the future. With the energy transformation and steady advancement of the "dual-carbon" goal in China, natural-gas demand presents a strong growth, which needs more much gas source support from overseas. In order to maintain China's strategic pattern of energy import diversification and satisfy the strongly growing demand, some suggestions on the "Belt and Road Initiative" energy cooperation with Central Asia have been made on the basis of extensive investigation and in-depth analysis. Results show that (i) Central Asia boasts not only superior base of renewable energy such as wind, solar and hydropower, but favorable national policies for related industries. So, promoting the cooperation with Central Asian countries in this field can seize opportunities of renewable energy markets in these countries and push their renewable energy industrial development, while restraining the local natural-gas demand to a certain extent; and (ii) Kazakhstan enjoys strong base and great potential in coalbed methane resources. Grasping chances to develop related industries through the cooperation with this country can strengthen its natural-gas base and meet its need in energy transformation, which is of great significance to firm overseas gas sources for China to import natural gas and maintain the pattern of diversified energy imports.

China's petroleum exploration enterprises and geological survey organizations invested more in oil and gas exploration in 2022 to cope with complicated situations like global profound changes unseen in a century and shock in international energy markets. And a lot of new exploration discoveries and breakthroughs were found and made. For the high-quality and sustainable development of China's petroleum exploration in the coming future, situations about conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources in China were expounded, main features and fresh highlights in this exploration in 2022 were reviewed, and exploration prospects in 2023 were put forward in combination with resource potential. Results show that (i) China' petroleum exploration in 2022 exhibited obvious turnaround of both capital investment and petroleum production, new discoveries mainly founded around or in the deep part of proved reservoir-forming assemblies, outstanding findings of unconventional oil and gas exploration in mature fields, and guidance of advanced geological theories and technologies to make new exploration breakthroughs; (ii) significant exploration breakthroughs have been made in fault-controlled high-energy shoal at the Ordovician of Fuman oilfield in Tarim Basin, the Permian natural gas and deeper shale gas in southeastern Sichuan Basin, and shale oil in old oilfields of east China; and (iii) China's petroleum exploration in 2023 is expected to witness novel breakthroughs in the deep or the deep waters, periphery of large petroliferous basins, as well as marine shale oil/gas and shale gas with marine-continental transitional in north China.

As the growth in both demand of gas consumption and dependence on gas import in China, it is imperative to build the natural-gas reserve capacity enough for seasonal peak-shaving, which is an essential measure to secure the long-term, safe and stable natural-gas supply and promote the sustained and stable evolvement of China's economy. So, the necessity and feasibility of underground gas storage (UGS) constructed in offshore China were summed up and analyzed. Coupling with the current storage capacity, some offshore UGS schemes were proposed, and their construction and operation modes were discussed. Results show that (i) high-quality oil and gas reservoirs in offshore can make up shortfalls in the onshore UGS capacity. Sea conditions, project schemes, UGS construction/operation modes and other factors should be especially investigated. This construction is believed to be safe and reliable according to decades of offshore engineering technologies and management experiences in China; (ii) offshore UGSs and LNG terminals can be designed in collaboration by means of two schemes: offshore, and onshore & offshore. And offshore field development and UGS construction can be coordinated and integrated; (iii) UGS construction cost can be reduced by overall planning and stepped implementation. Through optimizing construction modes, the sort of UGSs build from large-scale gas reservoirs functions as a natural-gas running platform to interconnect with field production, LNG import and onshore pipeline gas, thus realizing a multi-source coordination for joint commissioning and delivery; and (iv) lifecycle dynamic management of production, injection, storage and withdrawal of gas reservoir UGS can drive the development of marginal fields nearby and also improve overall benefits in field development, UGS operation and natural-gas peak-shaving.

A better relation among enterprises, local government and community stakeholders is one of the key elements in the great development of natural gas, Sichuan Basin, so that the government and all sectors of the community can be mobilized to serve for increasing both reserves and production in an effort to build the production-capacity base hitting 1,000×10⁸m³ and clean-energy demonstration base as well as promote the regional economy. Taken PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company as an example, the vital function, principle ways and obtained achievements of the enterprise-locality relation were analyzed for the great development of natural gas, some solutions of both collaboration were proposed with consideration of existing problems. Results show that (i) oil and gas exploration and development activities are exactly constrained to both subsurface and surface resources. As the exploration and development technological process, technical conditions do no longer serve as bottlenecks, and non-technical contradictions between enterprises and local entities are increasingly prominent and become one of the main factors governing this great development; (ii) enterprises and local entities should be work together to set a coordination and communication platform through deliberate planning and coordination across industrial chains, the central enterprises should build joint ventures with provincial, municipal or other local entities to initially form enterprise-locality co-sharing and co-construction mechanisms; and (iii) functions of various platforms in resource allocation and interest-sharing balance will be fully activated in order to realize mutual prosperity, and an active cooperation between petroleum enterprises and local entities will be enhanced so as to bring about favorable conditions.

Although in 2022, frequent COVID-19 outbreak appeared across China, economic development faced triple pressure of pullback in demand, vulnerable supply and weaker expectation, and global oil and gas prices were on the rise due to geopolitical conflicts, China's natural gas development rolled back and forth but held stable supply and demand as well as lot of resilience. Moreover, it presents the following characters. First, major achievements were remade in gas exploration, and proved reserves kept growing at the peak rate. Second, gas production still increased like an upward arrow, but with continuous decline in growing output and rate. Third, the import price of natural gas rose whereas the imports fell; and the imports of LNG emerged as a negative growth for the first time. Fourth, its consumption dropped due to feeble demand. Fifth, the infrastructure construction of natural gas advanced energetically. Sixth, its marketization went ahead. In conclusion, in 2023, both social and economic development momentum will be enhanced in China, and natural gas development will welcome a stable and progressive year after variations of COVID-19 control and prevention strategy. It is expected that, with shale gas as the leading gas, the natural gas will exceed one trillion cubic meters of proved reserves again. Its production should move forward steadily with the output staying an increase around 10 billion cubic meters. LNG imports will continue their up trend, and those of natural gas will rebound by cooperating with Gazprom. The demand of natural gas will pick up strongly and the supply-demand market will be steady. And some latest progress will be made in system and mechanism reforms on natural gas.

Since the first year of hydrogen energy in 2019, China's hydrogen energy industry has witnessed its sustainable and rapid development. As the COVID-19 pandemic changes, the industrial development enters a fresh stage and faces new challenges. Under the continuous promotion of dual-carbon strategy, the hydrogen energy industry presents new characteristics as follows. It is in the period of overall transformation, hydrogen energy policies are in the period of frequent release, its market in the period of accelerated cultivation, its enterprises in the window period of transformation, its technologies in the period of rapid development, and its application scenarios in the breakthrough stage, respectively. By summarizing current situations and features, it is expected that the industrial evolvement displays some trends, for example, policies will be further optimized and adjusted, the coordination degree of industrial chain development will be improved, the industrial ecology will be deeply expanded, the international cooperation will be extensively strengthened, new breakthroughs will be made in the field of transportation, and the regional industrial development gap will be further widened. Finally, it is suggested to adhere to the policy-oriented development to ensure healthy and orderly industrial development, adhere to the market-driven core force to forge a business model with market competitiveness, adhere to the innovation-driven efficient guidance to intensify industry-university-research integrated technological RD and incubation, adhere to the behavior-driven key supplement to introduce hydrogen energy into the scope of CCER carbon market, and adhere to the important grasp of internal training and external employment to promote the level of professional personnel in enterprises.

In order to clarify the natural-gas import and export prospect in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member states, the natural-gas market in these member states was investigated extensively, and both status and prospect of the natural-gas resources, production, and consumption were analyzed. In addition, some situation on these member states was predicted, including the natural-gas exploration and development prospect, the natural-gas consumption structure and prospect, the status and prospect of natural-gas import and export, especially that of LNG import and export, the price status and pricing mode, and the future trend of LNG trade. Results show that (1) in the RCEP area, there are abundant natural-gas resources mainly discovered in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and offshore Oceania. In recent years, gas production in the ASEAN region has declined slightly whereas increased steadily in the Oceania regions. It is predicted that in the future, the production in the ASEAN will remain a continuously slight decline and that in the Oceania regions will decrease firstly and then increase; (2) some foreign companies dominated by international petroleum companies participate more in natural-gas industrial upstream in the RCEP area, and some of them take a leading role in many resource countries; (3) the gas consumption mostly used for power generation and industry in the RCEP area is stable; (4) the LNG demand in the RCEP area exceeds its supply, so it is essential to import large amount of LNG, and this situation will go on; and (5) the natural-gas price in the RCEP area is associated with an international oil price and it fluctuates with the oil price. It is predicted that the LNG market price will always present a rising trend. In conclusion, the LNG import and export in the RCEP area will not increase greatly and the pipeline-gas trade will shrink further from now on.

Different from some countries in Europe and America, it is impossible for China to implement the marketization of gas price by means of gas-to-gas competition. So, there is some hope to find out a new approach to speed up this price marketization through a comparative study on China's oil and gas price reform. Results show that (1) due to the same or similar industry-market structure and higher external dependence, both oil and gas price reforms have many commonalities and need the coordination of fiscal and tax policies; (2) the oil price reform is to adapt the domestic crude-oil price to the international market, set the domestic refined-oil price on the basis of the crude-oil price in this market, and levy windfall profit tax on domestic crude oil when the oil price is high; (3) in the long run, like the oil price, the gas price will be straightened out, which means imported gas shall be sold at least at the favorable price of CIF purchase cost and the sales price of domestic gas shall be in line with that of imported gas. At present, however, comprehensive pricing of both domestic and imported gas is more suitable in China. To speed up the marketization of gas price, it is necessary to adopt the policy design which is different from that of oil price reform, so that in the case of price liberalization, the upstream gas-supply enterprises would sell gas according to the comprehensive pricing of domestic and imported gas, rather than in the mode that the domestic-gas price is in line with the imported-gas one. And specific practices are as followed. First, as for upstream gas-supply enterprises with the dominant market position, adopt revenue regulation to stipulate the permitted rate of return for domestic-gas exploration and development and the permitted profit from the sale of one cubic meter of imported gas. If the actual annual revenue exceeds government's permitted revenue, hand the excess part over to the state finance in the form of windfall profit tax. Second, when revenue regulation is applied to the upstream gas-supply enterprises, set the gate price of residential gas according to the government's guidance price, and marketize that of the other gases completely. And when the conditions are satisfied, liberalize the gate price of residential gas completely as well. Third, reasonably determine the permitted revenue of upstream gas-supply enterprises, and establish and improve the upstream and downstream price linkage mechanism.

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in UK Glasgow from October to November 2021, marks a new journey of the international community to cope with climate change overall. The oil and gas industry, as a traditional energy industry, shall continuously meet new social demands for environmental protec- tion and climate change under new situations while providing energy for economic development. In order to pro- mote the long-term sustainable development and transformation in the oil and gas industry, the main achievements and topics in COP26 closely related to the industry were presented, and the new situations on emission reduction were analyzed on the basis of related policies and industrial status. In addition, several suggestions on the development of the domestic oil and gas industry under the new situations have been proposed. The domestic oil and gas industry needs (1) to actively respond to the pressure of emission reduction and to promote the development and deployment of negative emission technologies, (2) to pay attention to the potential of the carbon market and to establish relevant mechanism and system as soon as possible, and (3) to carry out sufficient market analysis and to adjust product structure in time. In conclusion, as global action on climate change accelerates, the oil and gas industry will be under greater pressure of emission reduction. In the short term, it will face the supervision of methane emission, whereas under the influence of investment slowdown in the long term. The traditional oil and gas industry is entering a critical transformation period and may face various stress in light of emission reduction, energy supply, and social responsibilities, and should also master the growth poles in such emerging sectors as natural gas, negative emission technology, carbon trading, and hydrogen. With unprecedented opportunities and challenges, only by actively adapting to new environments and exploring new technology and business orientation can bring about this industry developed in a sustainable manner.

In 2021, although the world economy struggled through the frequent impact of COVID-19, global oil and gas prices rose against the trend and even the European gas price hit an all-time record. Under the guidance of national economic policy of “six stabilities” and “six guarantees”, however, China's natural-gas industry was always on the ground to move forward steadily, appearing six characteristics as followed. First, natural-gas exploration achievements were fruitful and new proved reserves hit the highest historical level. Second, natural-gas production broke the barrier of 2000×108 m3. Third, both increase and growth rate in natural-gas import reached a new high in the three years. Fourth, natural-gas supply and demand in this year was stable, balanced and loose, and the increase of apparent consumption came the second in history. Fifth, the middle section of the third West-to-East Gas Pipeline begun on construction and UGSs' construction was being planned. Sixth, a new policy on pipeline transportation price reform was issued and the market-oriented price reform advanced quietly. In 2022, the development of China's natural-gas industry will follow the spirit of the central economic work to set stability first and make progress while maintaining stability. It's expected that the newly proved reserves and production will exceed 1×1012 m3 and 100×108 m3, respectively. The import will increase steadily. Furthermore, the demand will remain strong, the market supply and demand will keep balance, the trans-provincial pipeline transmission price shall be reduced, and the construction of production, supply, storage, and sale system will still be the key engineering concerned and promoted by the state.