BEIJING, June 24 (UPI) -- China is close to filling the first of four strategic petroleum storage facilities, planned as part of its quest for energy security, state television reports.
Wang Mingji, a vice chairman at China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., was quoted on CCTV Thursday as saying the country's first 16-tank storage facility, located at the port city of Zhenhai in Zhejiang province, would be filled this year.
China plans to build strategic reserves in three other locations. There will be a second storage facility in Zhejiang at Daishan, an island in the Zhoushan Archipelago. Huangdao district in the port city of Qingdao will have a site, as will Xingang, a coastal town near the major port of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning province.
The strategic reserves are meant to cushion the country against possible supply interruptions and to be used as a buffer during price fluctuations. Chinese media reports say Beijing plans to stockpile up to 100 million barrels of oil, the equivalent of nearly one month's consumption nationwide.
The reserve will be managed by a government commission created earlier this year to coordinate China's energy policy.
