In recent years, with the acceleration of energy transformation and the increase of environmental protection, natural gas consumption in China is rising rapidly, which puts forward higher requirements for ensuring the safety of natural gas supply. Increasing reserve and production is the key to promote the coordinated and stable development of natural gas and enhance the safety of natural gas supply. On the basis of summing up the situation of natural gas supply and demand in China, this paper presents the main challenges and problems facing the natural gas exploration and development at present, and analyzes on the potential and prospect of increasing natural gas reserve and production. It points out that through increasing the investment and strengthening the technological innovation and policy support, natural gas production targets in the Thirteenth Five-year Plan can be achieved. In view of the problems and challenges, the paper puts forward some policy suggestions to promote the increase of natural gas reserve and production: to set up a diversified competitive market system for oil and gas exploration and development, to fully open up the exploration and development of domestic oil and gas resources to foreign capital, to strengthen the research and development of key technologies, to promote the scale benefit development of oil and gas resources and the coordinated development of resources development and ecological environment protection, etc.

In the context of vigorously promoting the construction of ecological civilization and winning the blue sky defense fighting, natural gas development ushered in a rare historical opportunity. In recent years, the domestic natural gas production has increased rapidly, the diversified supply has been strengthened, the construction of storage and transportation facilities has been quickened, the natural gas consumption market has been booming, and the pace of cultivating natural gas into one of the main energy sources in China is steady and powerful. Looking forward to the future, we should insist on the high quality development as the fundamental requirement, promote the all-around profound revolution, accelerate the realization of the natural gas development improvement in quality, efficiency and dynamic, and effectively reverse the scale of quantity, extensive waste of the traditional production and consumption mode. Adhere to problem-oriented, focus on solving the current outstanding problems and deep contradictions that affect development, accelerate the establishment of a high-quality development mechanism combining short-term and long-term development, and form a long-term mechanism in all aspects of production, supply, storage and marketing. We should persist in promoting the construction of production-supply-storage-marketing system, base on the domestic gas production, diversified resource supply, interconnection pipelines and independent consumption, realize the coordinated and stable development of the natural gas industry, and build a unified and open natural gas market system with orderly competition.

From the perspective of global energy evolution, clean and low-carbon energy utilization is the only way to deal with global climate change and build a harmonious ecological environment. Based on the analysis of the trend of global energy development, this paper focuses on the important position and role of natural gas in the process of energy consumption structure transformation and upgrading. Through analyzing the realistic conditions and market basis of natural gas becoming the main energy source in China, this paper puts forward the strategic idea of creating 5A natural gas industrial chain in China from the supply side, that is, "availability,accessibility,assurance,affordability,accountability " natural gas industry chain, and the short-medium-term and medium-to-long-term implementation path and suggestions by deepening natural gas system reform combined with and policy support.

The construction of modern natural gas market system in China needs a scientific decision-making of institution and mechanism. The marketization reform of natural gas industry is faced with many major challenges. It is more urgent to build an enterprise think tank system. In accordance with the requirements of the state for the construction of a new type of think-tank system and the actual development of the natural gas industry in China, the think bank of natural gas enterprises is constructed which is consisted of main body of the think-tank, the elements of the think-tank, the mechanism of the think-tank, the system of the think-tank, and the management of the think-tank. The construction of the natural gas enterprise think tank system cannot be accomplished overnight. It is necessary to strengthen the management of the natural gas enterprise think tank and the construction of the talent team through perfecting the operation mechanism of the enterprise think tank system, and strengthening the information sharing and dissemination mechanism construction and other guarantee measure. It is of great significance to promote the innovation of natural gas economy and management research and development system, the development of natural gas strategic consulting market, and to participate in the competition of international energy think tanks.

After 60 years' development, China's natural gas market has gone through three historical stages: the small-scale gas market in Sichuan Basin, the relatively developed regional gas market and the national natural gas market. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed it out that the socialism with Chinese characteristics is entering a new era and under the great attention of the CPC central committee and the State Council, China's natural gas market will enter a new era in 2018 and the high-quality economic development and energy revolution will become the main driving force of China's natural gas market in the new era. It is expected that the consumption scale of China's natural gas market will approach to current level of the United States in 2035 and it will surpass the United States and become one of the leading countries in the international trade of natural gas in 2050. Through 30 years of natural gas market research, the Natural Gas Economic Research Institute, PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company has provided the government and enterprises with theoretical support and practical guidance for decision making in natural gas market and it is expected to provide more support for the development of China's natural gas market in the future.

Continuous change and repeat is the general law of things' change in people's view. China's natural gas price reform has also gone through the process of change and repeat, through which the development law in natural gas price management was explored and it is used to reveal China's ideas and methods in natural gas price management. We put forward the changes of natural gas price in price mechanism, price level, price structure and price level, analyzed and given the main factors that influence the development of natural gas price, depicted the price development mechanism with a double helix structure and finally made judgments on the trend of China's natural gas price development.

In the era of lower oil prices, benefit risk has become a new risk factor for oil and gas production enterprises. To control benefit risk is to find the best scheme for enterprise benefit development on the basis of avoiding input-output risk to the maximum extent, that can make the enterprise to develop for the high quality and to produce the high benefit. In order to conduct reasonable benefit risk control of oil and gas production enterprises, in the background of PetroChina Liaohe Oilfield Company's reform of expanding production and management autonomy, and based on the exploration and development practice of old oil fields, this paper explores the establishment of oil wells as control unit and the collection of new wells to implement benefit optimization. The five benefit risk control points, such as risk pre-evaluation of well treatment, classified management of oil well, whole life cycle evaluation of projects and benefit distribution between production and cost, are completely new "benefit risk control system of oil and gas production enterprises". The system has played an important role in the reform of Liaohe Oilfield Company for three years. It has strongly guaranteed the improvement of quality and efficiency of the enterprise and played an important role in guiding the benefit development of the old oilfield.

The Chinese government has made it clear that natural gas energy pricing will be implemented priced by energy. It is necessary to study the key issues that may be involved in formulating the implementation scheme in order to push forward taking into practice as soon as possible. On the basis of analyzing and summing up the main practices and experiences of foreign countries, and combining with the reality of our country, this paper analyzes the several key issues of the implementation scheme of natural gas energy pricing, and puts forward concrete solutions or idea one by one, which include technical scheme, pricing scheme, supporting conditions and implementation strategy, and finally put forward the relevant suggestions for the government to do. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) the lower limit of caloric value in the first class natural gas should be selected as the basic caloric value of natural gas, which is 36MJ / Nm3, and the dynamic adjustment mechanism of the calorific value should be established; (2) it is necessary to specify the range of calorific value of natural gas entering the national gas pipeline networks for the smooth implementation of natural gas energy pricing; (3) the following assignment to be done is to speed up the improvement of relevant pricing policies and management systems, and to speed up the improvement of the technical support system at the national level.

With the rapid transformation of global energy consumption fix, natural gas, as a reliable, affordable and sustainable green and clean energy, is changing the way of life of human beings. With the technological breakthrough for natural gas production, the status of gas in the energy structure is becoming more and more important. The world energy pattern will be rewritten with major changes in the natural gas market. The world is rich in natural gas resources, can meet long-term consumption needs. Global natural gas consumption is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 2% until 2035, and gas will overtake coal to become the second largest energy source. The world's natural gas supply and demand will continue to grow rapidly, the Asia-Pacific gas consumption will continue to lead the growth of global demand. With sustained macroeconomic growth and environmental protection policies, China's natural gas demand will continue to grow faster. Global LNG liquefaction capacity continues to increase, and LNG trade flexibility continues to strengthen, which will promote the rapid development of global natural gas trade. This paper mainly analyzes the supply and demand, trade and price situation of the international natural gas market in the energy transition period, and makes a study of the future trend.

Natural gas consumption in southwest China has continued to grow steadily. But as a result of ensuring natural gas supplies to the north China, non-resident gas consumption has been imposed restrictions on, the growth rate of natural gas consumption in the region is slightly lower than the national average level. Overall demand for natural gas in southwest China is exuberant, especially in the peak consumption season which appears the pattern that the supply is not adequate to the demand. Although the natural gas demand growth rate slows somewhat, but the forecast "the off-season is not weak, the peak season is more prosperous" pattern will continue. By reviewing and analyzing the present situation of natural gas market in southwest China, it is concluded that the natural gas market in this region will still maintain a high growth rate in the near future, especially in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi regions, which will surpass the growth rate in Sichuan and Chongqing regions.

The paper briefly describes the concept and framework of natural gas utilization industry cluster and analyzes the source of the driving force for development of natural gas utilization industry cluster. Taking Sichuan-Chongqing area as an example, the paper analyzes the driving force for development of natural gas utilization industry cluster in Sichuan-Chongqing area from the growth momentum of the cluster, the development of natural gas industrial chain and the driving role of the government and intermediary organizations. Aiming at existing problems in the development of natural gas utilization industry cluster in Sichuan-Chongqing area, the paper puts forward some policy suggestions on promoting the development of natural gas utilization industry cluster from the aspects of strengthening cooperation among all parties, continuously promoting the coordinated development of natural gas industrial chain and enhancing the construction of intermediary organizations.

The development of natural gas vehicles in Sichuan province is conducive to the prevention and control of air pollution and the optimization of energy structure. This paper focuses on Sichuan Province, which used natural gas in the field of transportation fuel earlier in China. Based on the research and analysis of the present situation and existing problems of natural gas vehicle, the policies of developing and utilizing natural gas as transportation fuel in Sichuan and other provinces are compared and analyzed. It is putted forward that the ideas and policy suggestions for promoting the development of natural gas vehicle in Sichuan province: (1) to accelerate the formulation of policies for promoting the construction of infrastructure used for natural gas as transportation fuel; (2) to improve the mechanism of sharing environmental protection costs and to arrange special funds for energy conservation and emission reduction; (3) perfect the natural gas automobile industry standard, technical specification, and deregulate CNG refit; (4) formulate the government purchasing policy of natural gas vehicle; (5) formulate the promotion policy to encourage the development of LNG ship, etc.

With the completion and operation of China-Myanmar Pipeline, Zhongwei pipeline and the LNG terminal in Beihai, Guangxi as well as the implementation of policies such as Opinions on Accelerating the Utilization of Natural Gas jointly issued by 13 ministries and commissions of China, Yunnan-Guizhou-Guangxi region is experiencing a climax of accelerating the utilization of natural gas. The paper holds that the comprehensive utilization of natural gas in this region should be started from the aspects of the government's overall planning, positive guidance, benefit priority, technological innovation, and sound policies on the comprehensive utilization of natural gas, so as to realize substantial progress in comprehensive utilization of natural gas in Yunnan-Guizhou-Guangxi region.

The sustainable development for natural gas industry is an inevitable way in which is adapted by the CPC and the state to conduct the energy revolution, to establish the modern energy system and to promote the development with green and low carbon. The coupling system of natural gas industry sustainable development based on the coupling of sustainable development factor system and natural gas industry system includes three organic components as follows. The first is the value subsystem of natural gas industry chain realizing the process of value creation and increment. The second is the natural gas industry support subsystem providing the supportability and the service activity. The third is natural gas industry coordination subsystem is the value subsystem and the support subsystem that is one of the important component to promote the balanced development and the steady operation. The paper puts forward the construction strategy of coupling system, which provides a certain theoretical reference and management support for promoting the natural gas industry to be green and low-carbon, clean and efficient, collaborative innovation, harmonious sharing, sustainable development of modern development.

China's natural gas exploration and development has entered the third stage of rapid development period, is facing a series of new challenges and problems. Through the analysis of the present situation, it is concluded that the upstream sector of the natural gas industrial chain in China has the resource base for long-term growth and development, and is ushered in a new historical development opportunity period. With the depth changes of the idea for the development of natural gas exploration and development in China, the development of upstream natural gas business is facing a series of challenges. The natural gas upstream sector in China should predict the impact of international petroleum and gas industry impact ahead of time, further develop the key core technology, and realize the scale benefit development of complex gas reservoir by technological innovation and integration. At the same time, we should increase the intensity of unconventional gas exploration and development and policy support, carry out green gas field construction standard under the situation of increasingly strict environmental protection and mineral rights protection, increase the intensity of mineral rights, reserves transference and marketization, and activate the vitality of exploration and development. In view of the serious situation of regional benefit differentiation, the upstream deployment should be based on the classification of the domain, through the comprehensive classification evaluation, combined with the development situation and characteristics of different regions, the implementation of different development strategies.

Ecological civilization was promoted as a millennium plan in the report of the Nineteenth Congress of CPC. In the face of environmental protection, tight supply and demand of natural gas resources, and other pressure from all directions, it is imperative to speed up the development and utilization of shale gas in China. In this paper, the prospect of shale gas development and utilization in China is prospected, and the key factors restricting shale gas development and utilization are emphatically analyzed. The countermeasures and suggestions on accelerating the development and utilization of shale gas in China are put forward from four aspects, which are including quickening the implementation of resources that is to consolidate the development foundation, perfecting the natural gas market environment. speeding up the construction of infrastructure, perfecting the fiscal and tax policy system for shale gas development.

By the end of 2017, the total mileage of natural gas transportation pipelines in southwest China was about 1.33 × 10⁴ km, accounting for about 18% of the total length of natural gas transportation pipelines in China. Natural gas pipeline construction technology and management ability also has rapid development. This paper summarizes the present situation of natural gas transportation pipelines in southwest China, the construction of new pipelines, the construction trends of key pipelines, and analyzes the development situation of natural gas industry in southwest China. As a result, the development trend of gas transportation pipelines in southwest China could be grasped in oil and gas industry development situation.

On the basis of an in-depth interpretation of the tasks of the reform of the natural gas system in China, which is in " The Views of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening the Reform of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Institutional mechanism", five major recent developments in the reform of the natural gas system in China have been followed and analyzed, which are included: introducing the regulation policy of gas distribution price; to reconfirm the tariffs of long distance gas transmission pipelines; To promote the construction of natural gas production, supply and marketing system for making up for the shortage of gas storage and peak shaving; to straighten out the gas gate price of residents; to start the pilot project of natural gas institution mechanism reform. Then, by synthesizing the current situation of China's natural gas market development and the latest policy trends, the policy objectives, measures and implementation paths of China's natural gas system reform are analyzed and judged in the near and medium term, that are to research and promote natural gas legislation; promoting the reform of natural gas mining rights and opening up the upstream market; promoting the reform of the operation mechanism of natural gas pipeline networks; strengthening the marketization reform of natural gas prices; supporting the construction of regional natural gas trading centers.