CHINA plans to build an emergency oil stockpile to cover the equivalent of 90 days of imports by 2020, said the energy research head at the nation's top economic planning body yesterday.
China will fill the stockpile based on market conditions and the government will consider the potential global impact when making purchases of crude for its emergency supplies, Han Wenke, director of the National Development and Reform Commission's energy research institute, said in an interview.
China is building a store of oil to shield the world's fastest-growing major economy from supply disruptions and price volatility. Benchmark oil prices in New York have dropped 18 percent from the record US$78.40 reached last July, a decline that some analysts say contributed to China buying record volumes of crude in March and April, Bloomberg News reported.
"The crude price is a bit lower and the market has provided an opportunity for China to build its stockpile," Han said before giving a speech to the Shanghai Forum, an energy and finance conference.
The International Energy Agency, an adviser to 26 oil-consuming nations, recommends its member countries maintain a stockpile level of 90 days of net oil imports.
China, not an IEA member, plans to stockpile reserves equivalent to 30 days of imports by 2010, Chen Deming, the planning commission's vice chairman, said in April.