BEIJING — China's National Energy Administration (NEA) has called on the country's oil and gas firms to expand production capacity, speed up the creation of national strategic oil and gas supply bases and take responsibility for safeguarding national energy security, Reuters reported. According to a summary released by the NEA on Friday, the call was made at a meeting held two days earlier, on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters via TradingView, Oct 23, 2026

The NEA summary said companies should step up investment and exploration, with the stated aims of steady growth in crude oil output and rapid growth in natural gas production, Reuters reported via Shafaqna. PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC were among the major energy companies that took part in the meeting, according to the NEA summary. The Reuters report gave no specific numerical production target or deadline attached to this call.

Source: Reuters via Shafaqna, Oct 24, 2026

The push sits inside a wider plan already published for the next five years. China aims to raise its domestic oil and gas supply to 440 million metric tons of oil equivalent by 2030 — yaani 44 crore tonnes — under the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for petroleum and natural gas development, jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the NEA, China Daily reported. The blueprint also calls for an additional 20,000 kilometres of long-distance oil and gas pipelines by 2030, taking the total network to 220,000 km, liquefied natural gas receiving capacity of 200 million tons per year, and cross-border onshore pipeline import capacity of 114 billion cubic metres a year.

Source: China Daily via China Services Info, on the 15th Five-Year Plan for oil and gas

Dai Jiaquan, chief economist at the China National Petroleum Corp Economics and Technology Research Institute, said the new blueprint sets a tone of steady progress while maintaining sector-wide stability compared with the previous five-year period, China Daily reported. For energy-importing countries including India, a larger Chinese domestic supply push matters because China is one of the world's biggest crude and gas buyers: any change in how much it needs to import can move the same tanker, pipeline and spot markets that Indian and Punjabi-linked Gulf workers and traders watch.

Source: China Daily via China Services Info, on the 15th Five-Year Plan for oil and gas

What is solid

  • The NEA called on firms to expand capacity, speed up national strategic supply bases and safeguard energy security, at a Wednesday meeting summarised on Friday (Reuters).
  • The stated aims in that call were steady crude growth and rapid natural gas growth, with more investment and exploration; no specific numerical target was given in the Reuters report of the call.
  • The separate 15th Five-Year Plan targets 440 million tonnes of oil equivalent of domestic supply by 2030 and 20,000 km of new pipelines (China Daily).

What is only claimed

  • How much extra output the NEA call will actually produce, and on what timetable, is not yet known: the companies have not announced specific investments or projects under this call in the reporting available.