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Workers of the No. one oil extracting
unit of the Changqing oilfield inspect oil tanks in Yan'an, northwest
China's Shaanxi province, Dec. 16, 2007.(Xinhua/Tao Ming)
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BEIJING, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- China announced Tuesday
the setting up of a national oil reserve center, the top economic planning
agency confirmed.
China started a state strategic oil reserve base
program in 2004 as a way to offset oil supply risks and reduce the impact of
fluctuating energy prices worldwide on China's domestic market of refined oil.
With the approval of the government, the center was
officially launched Tuesday, said the National Development and Reform
Commission, which oversees a wide-range of social and economic affairs,
including energy.
The center, the administrative body of the country's
national oil reserve system, takes responsibility for building and making use of
the country's strategic oil reserves, the commission said in a statement.
The commission said the center will also keep an eye
on the movement of demand and supply of both domestic and international oil
markets.
The commission said the country has decided to
establish four strategic oil reserve bases in Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo and
Zhoushan, respectively. All of them are on the coast. The first one in Ningbo,
eastern China's Zhejiang Province, has started to stock up on oil.
They are designed to maintain strategic oil reserves
of an equivalent to 30 days of imports, or about 10 million tonnes.
NDRC official Hu Weiping said strategic oil reserves
will be used in case of emergency or when the country is suddenly in short
supply. "Never in any circumstances will China use its strategic oil reserves to
rig oil prices," he said.
Short of financial resources, China can not expand
its strategic oil reserves very quickly. Meanwhile, with high and fluctuating
oil prices in the international market, the country's increment of oil reserves
is certain to have an impact on the further movement of oil prices, NDRC
vice-minister Chen Demin said previously.
China's strategic oil reserve stood at two million to
three million tonnes, and would be expanded to about 12 million tonnes by 2010,
said Chen.
The launch of the national oil reserve center is
meant to beef up the country's energy security and solve such problems as
shortage of processed oil supply, Niu Li, an analyst with the State Information
Center, told Xinhua.
China's eastern and southern areas have seen another
serious and sudden shortage of fuel and diesel supplies since December this
year.
According to a statement from the third China-U.S.
Strategic Economic Dialogue, the United States and China agreed to strengthen
cooperation on the building and management of strategic oil stocks.
The statement said, "Coordinated use of strategic
petroleum reserves increases energy security for net oil-importing countries
during times of significant supply disruption."
Imports accounted for 66 percent of U.S. domestic
petroleum use last year. The figure for China, which became a net importer of
oil during the 1990s as its economy took off, was 47 percent.
China plans to build new oil reserve
base in southwest
CHENGDU, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- China will build a new
strategic petroleum reserve in Wanzhou, a district in Chongqing Municipality in
the southwest, once final approval is obtained from the central government.
Wanzhou District Government and the Sichuan Bureau of
Material Reserve signed an investment agreement last Friday over launching a
joint venture for building a new oil reserve base in Wanzhou, about 300 km away
from Chongqing. Full story
China to subsidize oil firms to ease
shortage
BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- China will offer subsidies to
domestic oil companies to offset high international oil prices amid efforts to
ensure market supplies, the nation's top economic planning agency said on
Wednesday.
Many gas stations across the country are experiencing
shortages, with refineries unwilling to raise output in light of the low,
government-controlled domestic fuel prices. Full story
