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BEIJING, June 24 -- China will start filling its first strategic petroleum
reserve this year, China Central Television (CCTV) said Thursday amid efforts to
ensure energy supplies for the country's booming economy.
Plans call for China to build groups of storage tanks at four lo
cations.
The first 16-tank facility to be filled is in the city of Zhenhai in the
eastern province of Zhejiang, south of Shanghai, CCTV said, citing Wang Mingji,
vice chairman of state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.
The reserve is meant to cushion China against possible interruptions of
foreign supplies. Previous reports said Beijing plans to stockpile up to 100
million barrels of petroleum, or the equivalent of almost a month's national
consumption.
The United States operates a similar reserve.
China's reserve is to be overseen by a government commission created this
year to coordinate energy policy and supervise state-owned oil companies and
other resources.
China supplied its own energy needs for decades from domestic oil fields,
but became a net petroleum importer in the 1990s. Driven by a booming economy,
it has quickly risen to become the world's second-biggest oil importer, after
Japan.
Plans call for three other reserve facilities in Daishan in Zhejiang,
Huangdao in Shandong province southeast of Beijing and in Xingang in Liaoning
province in the northeast.
(Source: China Daily)
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