Relationship among oil and gas resources, reserves and production in China and suggestions for the development direction of national oil and gas resource assessment

In order to understand the connotation and substantive relationship among oil and gas resources, reserves and production on a deeper level, this paper made an in-depth analysis and elaboration on the relationship among the three from the perspectives of theoretical logic and practical transformation, and presented suggestions for the development direction of resource assessment based on the analysis of application status. Resources, reserves and production are estimated quantities of oil and gas mineral resources under different levels of understanding. In China's classification system, reserves and resources are in a parallel relationship, and reserves and production are in an inclusive relationship. Both resources and reserves are geological meanings. The transformation from resources to reserves is affected by factors such as national spatial planning, mining right setting, theoretical technical and economic conditions, and the transformation from reserves to production is affected by factors such as reserves upgrading and transformation, whether to convert to mining, recovery factor, etc. China still has some deficiencies in resource assessment and release, as well as quantitative prediction of resources, reserves and production, which is also an important reason for the cognitive confusion of "China has rich resource potential but it is difficult to increase reserves and production". The enrichment and development of resource assessment contents and results application analysis will help to form a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the current situation of oil and gas resources. It should be further explored and developed in the future from the following respects: mobility classification of assessment results, assessment of (undiscovered) recoverable resources and application analysis of results.