Speaking with Nobuo Tanaka, the executive director of IEA, at the sidelines of China Energy and Environment Summit 2009, Zhang said, "It's impossible for China to have such an amount of crude oil reserve at the present time," refraining from citing China's official crude reserve statistics.
While addressing the conference in Beijing on Friday, Nobuo Tanaka said China has collected enough crude reserves to meet 86 days' import demand.
Citing a Chinese press report, the IEA official drew the estimate that China is now only four days short of the IEA's requirement to have crude reserves equal to 90 days of oil imports.
Inquiring on the issue, an executive from BP (China) Investment Limited said that Chinese crude reserves may be able to meet 50 to 60 days' need now, but stressed the necessity to make further calculations.
Most industry insiders were surprised by the large gap between national strategic reserve numbers and the IEA's latest prediction.
(XIC) lm

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