Hainan May Build Oil Reserve Base

China's southernmost island province of Hainan is actively seeking to establish an oil reserve base, a leading local official said on Tuesday.

"We are currently negotiating with international petroleum syndicates to this end, although I cannot reveal more information at the moment, " said Wei Liucheng, secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Wei further declined to specify the precise kind of oil reserve base Hainan is vying for, merely stating that "Hainan boasts distinctive advantages in building both a national strategic oil reserve base and a commercial oil reserve base."

He illustrated the fact that the island lies near main international oil shipping routes, and that any oil reserve would be complemented by the 300,000- ton crude oil wharf currently located in the Yangpu Economic Development Zone on the island.

China is already building four first-phase strategic oil reserve bases, respectively located in Zhenhai and Daishan in Zhejiang Province, Huangdao near Qingdao City of Shandong Province and Dalian in Liaoning Province.

The construction of the Zhenhai reserve was the first to be completed last August, with energy officials adding in early October that crude filling had begun.

Wei is a deputy to the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature currently in its annual session in Beijing. His remarks came at a panel discussion of Hainan lawmakers on Tuesday morning.

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2007)