China's official news agency Xinhua reported on May 21, 2017, that the CCP CC and State Council had on May 21, announced a reform plan for the country's oil and gas industry, eyeing better efficiency and competitiveness by giving market a decisive role in the sector. It said the "Market should play a decisive role in resource allocation and the government role should be better played in order to safeguard national energy security, boost productivity and meet people's needs." The reform is also a key plank of the country's 13th Five-Year Plan for 2016-2020. The plan reaffirmed the leadership's commitment to deepening the reform of state-owned oil and gas companies, encouraging eligible enterprises to diversify their shareholder base and introduce mixed-ownership reform. According to the plan, efforts should be made to advance reshuffling of the oil and gas industry based on work specialization. Engineering companies and oil and gas equipment manufacturers are encouraged to perform as independent enterprises. State-owned oil and gas companies should "keep fit to stay healthy", free themselves from running social services, and explore ways to sort out problems left over from history. The reform calls for the participation of eligible enterprises in the prospect and development of regular oil and gas resources which used to be dominated by state-owned companies.Private capital is welcomed to invest in and run oil and gas storage facilities.

(Comment: According to the government's plan published in January, China aims to increase domestic crude oil output to 200 million tonnes by 2020, while supply capacity for natural gas should exceed 360 billion cubic meters.China will add 1 billion tonnes of proven oil reserves annually from 2016 to 2020, and the proven reserves of natural gas will reach 16 trillion cubic meters by 2020.)