China plans to boost oil reserves

China plans to build four levels of crude oil reserves made up of two parts, the government reserve and enterprise storage, according to a source with the nation’s largest oil company. “The government reserve will be at two levels, a strategic crude oil reserve base by the central government, and an oil reserve base by local governments,” an official with PetroChina, said. In some regions that are hungry for energy such as South China’s Guangdong Province, the local government has started to plan for oil reserves. Analysts estimate that China would use up to 350 million tons of oil this year, 10 million tons more than last year. (July 19, 2007)