Lately, the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC") has enacted and released the 13th Five-Year Plan for Petroleum Development (the "Plan") and the 13th Five-Year Plan for Natural Gas Development.
The Plan sets forth that during the 13th Five-Year period, the proved geological oil reserves will grow on average by around one billion tonnes per year; the domestic petroleum production will be over 200 million tonnes by 2020 when a multiple security system for petroleum supply will be established under open conditions to secure the domestic consumption of 590 million tonnes of oil at that time. To achieve this end, the Plan ascertains six major tasks, including "enhancing exploration and exploitation to secure domestic supply of resources". In addition, the Plan states that efforts will be made to introduce the Regulations on National Petroleum Reserve as soon as possible, enable enterprises to maintain oil reserves on an obligatory basis, and drive the establishment and improvement of an oil reserve system under which the government reserves, enterprises' mandatory reserves and stocks of enterprises for production and operation are combined organically and complement each other. Also, the Plan requires efforts to deepen the reform of petroleum enterprises, encourage qualified oil-gas enterprises to develop into those with diversified equities and mixed ownership in different forms.