OREANDA-NEWS. March 12, 2012. China will "push forward" with building phase-two strategic oil reserve sites, Liu Tienan, head of the China National Energy Administration told reporters.

Liu didn't give further details when asked about progress on the reserve bases. Industry officials have said China is expected to complete building the phase-two tanks around the end of this year, after kicking off construction in early 2009.

The government has never disclosed a complete list of sites, but has said total storage capacity would be about 170 million barrels.