china-oil-refinery-2011.jpg (Photo : www.rfa.org)
The National Bureau of Statistics announced on Thursday that the first phase of China's strategic oil reserve project has been completed.
The total storage capacity for the oil reserve project is a staggering 16.4 million cubic meters, while the country's actual oil reserves stand at a total of 12.43 million tonnes, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The first phase is comprised of four oil reserve plants: the Dalian oil base in Liaoning Province in northeastern China, Huangdo oil base in Shandong Province in eastern China, and the Zhenhai and Zhoushan oil bases located in the Zhejiang Province in eastern China.
The strategic oil reserve project, which was started in 2004, is designed to prevent supply-based risks and to protect China's refined oil market from fluctuating global prices.
Based on the State Council's 2014 to 2020 energy development plan released on Wednesday, the country will be expanding its oil reserves in the following second and third phases of the strategic oil reserve project.
The oil reserve is based on the U.S. petroleum reserve, which has a storage capacity of more than 700 million barrels located within salt caverns in the Gulf Coast.
Reports from the Chinese government said that the country had 91 million spare barrels.
According to a report from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, more than 70 percent of oil demand growth comes from the developing Asian nations.
Data from the Chinese government shows that imports on crude oil increased by 18 percent last month year-on-year.
