Abstract: The United States energy independence is in stark contrast to China’s rising dependence on foreign resources. The international petroleum order-rebuilding and the China–US game have brought greater uncertainties to China’s oil and gas supply, and China’s energy security issues are increasingly prominent. China’s shale oil reserves rank the third in the world and present an important strategic alternative resource for China’s petroleum industry. To vigorously develop shale oil and promote China’s “shale revolution” is essential for ensuring the national energy security in an open climate. However, the shale oil upstream industry in China faces a lot of problems, such as low exploration quality, low recovery efficiency and imperfect policy system. In order to promote the high-quality development of the industry, China should learn from the US “shale revolution”. Specifically, China should focus on “three revolutions”: (1) the revolution of exploration quality, by performing the nationwide shale oil resource evaluation; (2) the revolution of technology and recovery efficiency, by devoting more efforts to key technologies of exploration and development; and (3) the revolution of system/mechanism, by accelerating the market-oriented reform of exploration and development.

Key words: shale oil, &ldquo, shale revolution&rdquo, , high-quality development