FACTBOX – China's strategic oil reserve plan

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has started building a 3 million cubic metre (19 million barrel) strategic crude oil reserve facility in Lanzhou in Gansu province and plans to start operating it in 2011, state media reported.

Lanzhou is among the sites for the second of three phases of crude oil reserves. China hopes to complete the second phase, totalling 170 million barrels, in two years, Liu Qi, deputy head of China’s National Energy Administration, said in September.

FIRST PHASE

China finished filling the 102 million barrel first phase by early 2009, 30 months after completing the tanks in October 2006.

Although the tanks have been filled, state-owned oil firms CNPC, Sinopec, Sinochem and CNOOC have stepped up efforts to secure oil for the storage since oil fell below $100 a barrel last year.

Reuters