China announces construction of new oil reserve facility

In an effort to ensure energy security in the face of an unstable global political climate, China announced it will begin construction of a new national strategic oil reserve site in Tianjin City as early as May. This new storage facility will have a storage capacity of 3 million cubic meters. An ethylene production project is also scheduled to be completed during the 12th five-year plan period which runs from 2011 to 2015. The Tianjin oil reserve site is one of eight stockpiling bases planned for the second phase of China’s petroleum reserve project. The other locations where reserve sites will be located are Zhanjiang, Huizhou, Lanzhou, Jintan and Jinzhou. Currently, China has an oil reserve capacity of 178 million barrels. Commercial oil stockpiling totals 168 million barrels, according to the China Petroleum & Chemical Industry Association, which provides China with a reserve capacity equivalent to 36 days of consumption. The goal is to have a total of 500 million barrels when the final phase of the strategic oil reserve project is complete. After the United States, China is the second largest consumer of oil in the world. (March 5, 2011)