BEIJING -- Thirty-two private enterprises had entered China's oil mining industry by August 2012, which used to be monopolized by state-owned or foreign-funded enterprises, according to statistics from China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation.

At the same time, nine private enterprises had entered the natural gas exploitation field and 64 private enterprises had been engaged in business activities secondary to oil and gas exploitation.

A report released over the weekend by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said that after the State Council issued new guidelines in May 2010 to encourage healthy private investment, more and more private enterprises have joined the oil and gas industry and have been playing a significant role in some sectors of the industry.

In 2012, the Ministry of Land and Resources opened the exploitation of shale gas and other unconventional oil and gas resources to private capital, which has attracted large numbers of private enterprises. In addition, Guanghui Energy Co. Ltd. and some other private enterprises have already started overseas oil and gas exploitation.

In the field of oil and gas transportation, private capital participated in the construction of the third stage of the west-east gas pipeline in 2012, which was the first time in history. Private enterprises in Henan, Jiangsu, Hunan provinces have also become shareholders or even owners of branch pipelines.

In the field of oil refining, 877 private enterprises are involved in crude oil processing and oil-related products, including 50 privately-owned refineries, with the combined capacity accounting for 7.1 percent of the country's total.

By the end of 2011, the number of private gas stations had reached 44,000, accounting for a market share of 46 percent. And for the first time six private enterprises were included in the national oil strategic storage system in 2011.