Friday 6 February 2009

China Strategic Oil Reserves Starts Operation

With international oil prices down, China has announced plans to build eight new oil reserves.

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Guanyu said...

China Strategic Oil Reserves Starts Operation

With international oil prices down, China has announced plans to build eight new oil reserves.

Chen Zhu, Caijing
5 February 2009

Planning is underway for China’s second batch of strategic oil reserves, according to the country’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

As of November 2008, China began initial work in the construction of eight facilities with a planed reserve volume of 26.8 million cubic meters, the equivalent of 169 million barrels. However, the NDRC did not provide further details about site selection or the state of construction of the new reserves.

Construction of China’s first four oil reserves began in 2003. The earliest to begin operations was the Daishan Reserve in Zhoushan, which was completed in 2006. By the end of 2008, the other three had started operations as well.

These four reserves are located in the cities of Ningbo and Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province, Qingdao in Shandong Province and Dalian in Liaoning Province. Their combined reserve volume is 100 million barrels.

Zhang Guobao, director of the Energy Bureau at the NDRC, said earlier that China will capitalize on declining international oil prices to push forward its strategic oil reserves and secure the country’s future oil supply.