BEIJING, Nov 17 (Reuters) - China's coastal city of Tianjin plans to build a massive oil storage base with a capacity of 20 million tonnes by 2023, its regional economic planner said on Tuesday.
The plan was part of a broader long-term industrial development blueprint launched by the Tianjin Municipal Commission of Development and Reform.
The oil base will be used for storage of both crude oil and refined oil products, and both for state strategic reserves as well as commercial reserves, according to a statement posted on the commission's website www.tjdpc.gov.cn.
State media reported in February that the northern city had begun construction of an oil base including state strategic oil reserves storage tanks with capacity of up to 5 million cubic metres as well as tank farms of a similar size for commercial stockpiling.
When completed, Tianjin's oil base will be one of the biggest in China.
China's first strategic oil base in Zhenhai in Zhejiang province can hold 5.2 million cubic metres, or 33 million barrels of oil, and its first four strategic oil bases, making up the first phase of state stockpiling, have a total capacity of 16.2 million cubic metres.
Beijing has completed plans for the second phase of state storage facilities that could hold up to 26.8 million cubic metres of oil, or 170 million barrels, but has not disclosed where the facilities are or whether construction has begun.
China hopes to complete its second phase of strategic oil storage tanks by 2011, a senior energy official said in September.
