Nation plans second phase of oil stockpile

BEIJING - China has started "preliminary work" on the second phase of its emergency oil reserves in Guangdong to help bolster energy security and meet demand, the head of the province's economic planning agency said.

Construction of storage bases in the cities of Zhanjiang and Huizhou in Guangdong will begin "as soon as possible," Li Miaojuan, director of Guangdong's development and reform commission, said after attending a parliamentary meeting in Beijing on Monday. "Everything is progressing as planned."

The world's second-largest energy-consuming nation is embarking on a three-phase project to build emergency reserves, taking advantage of oil prices weakened by the global slowdown. The government said last year it's planning to build the second phase in the northeast and work on storage tanks in the western province of Xinjiang has commenced.