Abstract: In 2020,the operation of China's natural gas industry continued to improve with the natural gas industry prosperity index, natural gas production index and natural gas sales index on a steady growth, and the dependence on foreign natural gas comes to a deceleration. However, the development of China's natural gas industry still faces challenges:the restriction of exploration and development technology on production, the urgent need to improve storage and transportation technology, the unsatisfactory operation mechanism of natural gas market, and the changing situation of international natural gas market. On the other hand, China's natural gas industry is also facing good development opportunities. The "coal to gas" projects, the long-term goal of "carbon neutrality", and the promotion of "digitalization" and "new infrastructure", all have expanded the development space of the natural gas industry. In order to achieve rapid and steady development of China's natural gas industry in the future, it is necessary to increase the domestic supply of natural gas, expand the application of natural gas, improve the operation mechanism of natural gas market, improve the operation of natural gas industry, improve the digital level of natural gas industry and ensure the normal supply of natural gas in China.

Key words: industry prosperity indexes, natural gas production, natural gas market, dependence on foreign natural gas, operation mechanism of natural gas industry