China is to push ahead with reforms to how natural gas prices are set, according to a report in today's China Securities Journal.

A report in today's China Securities Journal, a Beijing-based financial newspaper controlled by Xinhua News Agency, quotes an anonymous source as saying that China's top economic planning body has placed natural gas pricing reform at the top of its pricing agenda for this year.

The price reforms, which are based on a pilot program that has been operating in Guangdong and Guangxi since the end of 2011, will gradually lift the caps placed on domestic prices in order to encourage gas importers and producers.

The paper says that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) plans over the coming three years to increase the price of natural gas around the country.

The article also says that economic managers in many cities and provinces around the country are currently looking to lift the mandated cost of natural gas.

The report says that the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang plans to lift city-gate prices in March or April this year. Various cities in Jiangsu province as well as the capital Beijing are also planning to raise natural gas prices over the coming months.