BEIJING—China’s government said Friday it had doubled national oil stockpiles during the past year, as it looks to take advantage of cheap global supplies to follow wealthy nations in building strategic reserves.
The National Bureau of Statistics said that by mid-2015 its strategic reserves had reached about 191 million barrels, or 26.1 million metric tons. It earlier said in November 2014 that reserves stood at 91 million barrels.
China doesn’t release frequent updates to its strategic stockpiling efforts, which have left oil traders globally guessing about how much crude the country would want to buy off international markets.
Additionally, the National Bureau of Statistics said storage capacity reached 28.6 million cubic meters, and that China had doubled the numbers of strategic storage silos to eight nationwide. The storage sites are located in eastern industrial hubs such as the port city of Tianjin as well as in far western regions of Xinjiang and Gansu.
China intends to build stockpiles that can hold at least 500 million barrels by 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve has capacity for around 700 million barrels.
Chinese refineries consume around 10 millions barrels of oil per day, a number that is set to climb as millions more Chinese buy cars for the first time in the coming years.
While the U.S. has managed to somewhat break its dependence on imported oil through higher domestic production, China’s import needs continue to rise amid higher demand and stagnating domestic output.
China already imports around 60% of the oil it needs, making it susceptible to sharp fluctuations in benchmark prices. The evidence of continued aggressive stockpiling by China this year is also a positive sign for global oil markets that have been reeling from oversupply.