"After studying the natural gas pricing system, the government considers that the price of natural gas should be raised step by step to reach the international level," said Wang Jing, deputy chief of oil and natural gas department of NDRC.

But Wang did not reveal a timetable for the plan.

NDRC initiated the reform of the natural gas price system last year by raising the factory gate price of natural gas.

NDRC said factory price of natural gas should be regulated according to the price movement of alternative energy such as crude oil with price adjusted by no more than 8 percent than that of the previous year. Currently the natural gas price is mainly set by the government, not market, industry analysts agree.

China's major oil and gas suppliers, PetroChina, Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corp, recently submit a report on raising natural gas prices, claiming that they are under great pressure from international counterparts which have been raising export prices, too low sales prices for end users, fast domestic demand rise and high exploration, production and transportation costs. Statistics show the ratio of oil price to natural gas price is 1 to 0.24 in China, compared with 1 to 0.6 in the international market.