China will start filling its first strategic petroleum reserve this year, China Central Television (CCTV) said Thursday amid efforts to ensure energy supplies for the country's booming economy.

Plans call for China to build groups of storage tanks at four locations.

The first 16-tank facility to be filled is in the city of Zhenhai in the eastern province of Zhejiang, south of Shanghai, CCTV said, citing Wang Mingji, vice chairman of state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.

The reserve is meant to cushion China against possible interruptions of foreign supplies. Previous reports said Beijing plans to stockpile up to 100 million barrels of petroleum, or the equivalent of almost a month's national consumption.

The United States operates a similar reserve.

China's reserve is to be overseen by a government commission created this year to coordinate energy policy and supervise state-owned oil companies and other resources.

China supplied its own energy needs for decades from domestic oil fields, but became a net petroleum importer in the 1990s. Driven by a booming economy, it has quickly risen to become the world's second-biggest oil importer, after Japan.

Plans call for three other reserve facilities in Daishan in Zhejiang, Huangdao in Shandong province southeast of Beijing and in Xingang in Liaoning province in the northeast.

(China Daily June 24, 2005)