China''s strategic oil reserves may swell to 19 million barrels by mid-2007

08 March 2007

Mumbai: China's strategic oil reserves are expected to swell to 19 million barrels with the completion of the third unit of the Huangdao base. China will start filling tanks at its third strategic oil reserve in the eastern Shandong province by the middle of this year.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) hopes to complete work at the Huangdao storage in Shandong, said Du Guosheng, assistant to Sinopec president.

China is building four oil reserves to help secure the country's fuel supplies. Of this the two units in Zhejiang province have already started operating.

The others are in the Liaoning Province in northeast China and in Shandong province, which will be in operation by the middle of this year.

China has invested some $760 million to secure oil reserves of 10 million tonnes at the four sites.

China is planning to build a second set of strategic oil reserves, which are expected to add another 28 million tonnes of storage capacity, Xinhua news agency quoted officials with the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC) as saying.