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China to Open New Oil Base in October

Since 2004, the Communist-run People`s Republic of China has been constructing national oil reserve bases all over the country, similar to the system in place in the United States. The first four strategic oil reserve bases were located at Zhanhai and Daishan in Zhejiang Province, Huangdao in Shandong Province, and Dalian in the northeastern province of Liaoning. Recently, due to damage to an oil line and an interruption in oil supplies to the U.S., Washington has been contemplating tapping into America`s strategic oil reserves.

Now, China`s National Development and Reform Commission said earlier in the week that the country`s first strategic oil reserve, with storage capacity of 4.20 million cubic meters of oil, will be ready for operation in October 2006. The NDR commission said the oil reserve base is located at Zhenshai, located in the eastern Zhejiang province of the People`s Republic. It has 52 storage tanks, 16 of which were completed last September and the remaining 36 were expected to be finished in October.

The Communist state`s official Xinhua News Agency said the project cost $462.5 million and is considered a breakthrough for China, which until now still has no national strategic oil reserves. Zhang Guobao, deputy director of the NDRC, said 28 of the storage tanks were made of high strength steel plates. The location of the base is near China`s largest refinery, Sinopec Zhenjai Refining and Chemical Company which controls the YongHuNing oil pipeline that runs from Ningbo to Shanghai and Nanjing.