The Yamal LNG project in the Arctic area of Russia (Yamal LNG) involves many aspects including management of the project's finances, construction of LNG plants and special ships, exploration and development, liquefaction, storage, transportation, and distribution of natural gas. The project is very demanding in terms of quality, standards, and technologies required. China was chosen to carry out modular fabrication for the projects. Six Chinese offshore engineering companies were awarded with contracts to manufacture modules that weigh more than 400,000 tons. Other Chinese companies were also enlisted to provide manufacturing, production, and processing assistance along with material and equipment supplies for the project. Their involvement in the project showed to the world not just their comprehensive strength in both LNG technologies and equipment fabrication but also their potential to become a world class competitor in the petroleum engineering market, as demonstrated by their strong capacity, attractive cost, and short delivery period for module fabrication during their participation in the Yamal LNG project.

Domestic economic growth slowed down and supply exceeded demand in oil market in 2015, so the growth of refineries' processing volume was limited. Nevertheless, the gradual decontrol of market and the storage requirement under low oil price, crude oil imports hit a record high of 335.5 million tons, with the growth rate approximating 9%. Refined oil exports soared and imports decreased, which made China become a net refined oil exporter for the first time for 24 years, and net imports reached 6.22 million tons. Robust requirement on chemical raw materials propelled imported liquefied petroleum gas market to go on expanding. Imports exceeded 12 million tons in 2015, thus China leaped into the world's largest liquefied petroleum gas importer. In 2016, oil consumption growth would be kept at lower level. However, China would further decontrol crude oil import and refined oil export permits and put incremental storage capacity into use. Therefore, crude oil imports would continue to rise up, and refined oil exports may hit a new historic high. Imported liquefied petroleum gas market will enter into a stage of stable growth after two years' rapid development.

Crude oil imports in China are mainly carried out by state-owned entities with non state-owned entities as compliment. Crude imported by 5 state-owned entities accounts for 90% of the total imports, while non state-owned entities are about given more freedom in using and importing crude. In 2015 only, there were 13 companies granted with access to imported crude oil and 6 were qualified to import rights. Currently, there are 29 non-state-owned companies engaging in crude import business. China oil market is faced with severe challenges. The growth rate of oil demand declined, and dependence upon imported oil increased and reached as high as 61.26% in 2015. Refined oil demand growth also slowed down, and oil refining overcapacity got prominent and completion would become fiercer in future. Overcapacity was about 140 million tons per year in 2015. Consumption ratio of diesel to gasoline went on declining, and the task of product structure adjustment was heavy. China oil market is undergoing great transformation, and institutional mechanism will go ahead, on the basis of centering on orderly release of limitations on crude oil and refined oil import and export, orderly release of competitive business and government pricing of oil/gas downstream links, vigorous resolving of overcapacity, strengthening low-carbon development, and laying a solid foundation for guarantee.

By the end of 2015, total length of China's long-distance gas pipelines has exceeded 70,000km. Onshore strategic import paths have been formed, domestic trunk networks perfected and gas storages construction pace accelerated. The Chinese section of Russia-China East Gas Pipeline was officially commenced, which marked that the northeast import path entered the stage of construction. There are 13 LNG terminals in China. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) approved China's first private-owned LNG terminal—the Zhoushan LNG terminal. In the coming five years, the focus of institutional reform will be the independence of pipelines and networks, the focus of construction will be regional networks and branch pipelines, and joint ventures will be the mainstream for gas pipeline construction and operation.

Commercial shale gas production has been rapidly realized in China following a short learning period. Shale gas production is expected to reach 4.5bcm by the end of 2015, with the construction of a 7.5 bcm production capacity. Over 700 shale gas wells have been drilled in China, mostly by the three state-owned oil companies. The most significant factors that led to the rapid shale gas development in China include the abundant shale gas resources, a relatively complete R&D system, and strong support from various stakeholders (the central and local governments, oil companies, and the general public). China has a long way to go for building a booming shale gas industry, because of many big obstacles in the way of shale gas development, including complex geology, high operation costs, incomplete infrastructure and technology constraints. Looking ahead, however, there are firm grounds for the projection of a bright prospect of China's shale gas industry, as a 20 bcm annual shale gas production is reasonably expected in 2020.

Alang with big drop of oil prices, offshore oil engineering market demand is witnessing profound changes. This brings rare opportunities while huge challenges for Chinese offshore oil engineering enterprises. Chinese offshore oil engineering enterprises have made rapid development in recent years, but they still have a certain gap with European and American competitors. Only by answering the time's call for developmentof international market and having the courage to participate in international competition could Chinese offshore oil engineering enterprises grow strong unceasingly.

In 2015, China's oil companies' overseas equity oil has grown steadily to approximately 150 million tonnes. State-owned oil majors have turned from scale-oriented to profit-oriented by adjusting investment speed and optimizing portfolio to improve operating profit of overseas business. The overseas investment of private oil companies mainly focused on two fields: the first is to invest in countries along the Belt and Road (the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road), and the second is to enter the oil industry of the developed countries by M&A. Limited progress has been made in the foreign cooperation of domestic upstream sector, while new changes emerged in the foreign cooperation of upstream sector. Some planned projects were postponed or delayed due to domestic or international market changes. Private oil companies, however, began to cooperate with foreign companies in the downstream sector after the former got the right to import crude oil.

As oil and gas development gets more difficult, the market competition in engineering technology services tends to be fiercer. CNPC mud logging business is facing double challenges from technology and market. We analyzed both external and internal environment for CNPC logging business development, made clear the opportunities and challenges, gained insights into the existing problems, and proposed countermeasures from the aspects of management system, service mode, profitability, techniques and equipment, market expansion, and personnel training.

Currently, oil companies face the "new normal" condition that the profit of their upstream business is shrinking with the plunge of oil price. This problem challenges the operation and management of the upstream business. Therefore, it is essential to find out the new approaches and key points of work, to achieve the goal of realizing a quality and sustainable development. From ten aspects, this paper discusses the challenges facing the upstream business of oil companies and puts forward corresponding roadmaps and strategies.

With the rapid growth of coal chemical industry in China, the selection and application of Air Separation Unit (ASU) became very important. As the core unit in coal chemical industry, ASU will greatly impact the engineering construction and operation/production of coal chemical business. In this paper, major suppliers of ASU at home and abroad were reviewed, and the major supplying status of ASU in China was introduced. The ASUs in operation of SINOPEC were listed and discussed. On this basis, some suggestions of ASU selection strategies were provided on localization, standardization and operation methods.

China has proposed the "Belt and Road Initiative (B&R)" in 2013. One of its core strategies is international oil/gas cooperation. This paper addresses the status quo of cooperation on oil/gas infrastructure with countries along the line of "B&R", anticipates the cooperation prospect. On this basis, the author analyzes China's advantages and cooperation basis in this domain, conceives the practical way of cooperation on oil/gas infrastructure with countries along the line of "B&R". This paper also elaborates on the potential risks, risk evaluation criteria and risk control in oil/gas infrastructure cooperation with countries along the line of "B&R".

This paper discusses the development of China's oil exploration & drilling equipment, and it focuses mainly on the domestication, industrialization, and standardization of fixed offshore drilling rigs primarily constructed by CNOOC. Considering the manufacturing of and application of deepwater drilling equipment in China, the authors put forward suggestions regarding industry policies and the standardization of China's offshore engineering equipment.

There is a bright future for cooperation in oil & gas development in China. Total and other French companies strengthen communication and cooperation with Chinese partners to develop oil & gas in China as well as in other countries. Chinese and French companies continue to benefit from cooperation in petroleum upstream industry, gas industry as well as in other fields.

In order to economically and effectively develop shale gas in China, Sinopec introduced foreign technologies and integrated them with available domestic technologies and self-developed tools according to geological characteristics and complicated mountainous geomorphology in marine shale plays of southern China. A technology series composed of innovated theories concerning geological characterization during drilling, new generation of PDC bits, friction-reducing tools, low-cost oil-based drilling fluid system, high-efficient washing fluid and elastic mud systems, integrated drilling engineering design, long lateral cementing, modified well factory drilling method and etc., was developed to fulfill fast and optimized drilling for shale gas wells. The application of the technology series in about 251 wells of Fuling gas field, Chongqing City, southwestern China, showed positive results: mechanical rotating speed increased by 191%, drilling duration reduced by 53%, and quality passing percent 100%.

Not only being abundant in resources, natural gas also helps power grids consume wind energy, solar energy and etc. The promotion of natural gas is an essential way to facilitate the development of new energy and complete the transition to an energy system where the renewable energy is dominant. The operation of energy Internet with a concept of equal, open, cooperative and sharing, and the optimization of a combined energy of gas, electricity, heating and cooling, could significantly improve the energy efficiency. Meanwhile, the development of energy Internet technology will subvert the existing division of energy industry, and generate new commercial formats with features of highly openness. It will also subvert some existing market rules, change the governance methods, generate renovations in organizations, business models and government management methods, thus requires further revolution in energy industry. In order to promote the rapid and healthy development of "Internet plus" natural gas industry, a series of policies and precautions are needed to be introduced and improved.

There are abundant proved oil reserves in Iraq, and Chinese companies are looking for petroleum business opportunities in Iraq. Rich experience, strong technical support and good reputation enable Chinese companies to bid for power in Iraqi petroleum market. There is much potential to find big oil reserves in Iraq, and developing Iraqi petroleum market has increased Chinese companies’ competition strength.

China has made great progress during 7 years of shale gas exploration and development. The country managed to finish a preliminary assessment of its resources, start commercial development of two shale gas blocks, and carry out basic technological research for independent development of the gas. To encourage the development of the sector, the country also issued a series of preferential policies. Two rounds of shale gas bidding were held successfully. However, shale gas development in China is still in an early stage. Challenges such as immature geological theories, lack of key technologies and capital,and environmental issues are almost inevitable and need to be tackled before or duringthe exploration and development of shale gas in the country. Overall, shale gas has a bright future in China because of the country's urgent demand for cleaner energy and its current heavy reliance upon imported gas. The article suggests that China will be able to produce 40 bcm by 2020 and that a healthy development of shale gas will be good news for both chemical engineering and peak shaving reserves.

Proved oil reserves are abundant in Latin America. Chinese companies are looking for opportunities to conduct petroleum business in Latin America. Chinese companies, bolstered in their efforts by their wealth of experience, strong technical support, and good reputation, have started bidding for power in the oil market of Latin America. A bright future is expected for cooperation in oil development in Latin America. Chinese and Latin American companies will continue to benefit from cooperation in the oil industry.

Guided by President Xi Jinping's key speech about energy revolution-"Four Revolutions and One Cooperation"-the Chinese oil and gas industry continued to accelerate its pace of reform in 2016. China has deepened its supply-side structural reforms, prevented and resolved the problem of excess production capacity, increased the effective supply of clean energy such as natural gas, and formed an energy innovation system. It has pushed forward the reform of pricing mechanisms with significant adjustments in the pricing mechanisms of oil products, pipeline transportation, gas storage and gas used for fertilizer production. It has also accelerated market access reform and encouraged various investors to enter into the fields of exploration & production, pipeline transportation and crude oil imports. China has sped up the legislative process of environmental protection to promote green and low-carbon development. It has accelerated oil & gas industry institutional reform, with some provinces initiating the pilot reform of oil and gas.