Chinese province plans 10 mln cubic metre crude stockpile

BEIJING, Mar 4 (Reuters) An oil reserves base that China's southern Guangdong proposes to build would stockpile 10 million cubic metres of crude oil and 2 million cubic metres of refinery products, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

The project would cost 5 billion yuan (5 million dollars), Xinhua said.

A state newspaper said on Tuesday that the central government was considering the proposed reserves base. China is already going ahead with such bases in two eastern provinces, Zhejiang and Shandong, and in Liaoning, in the northeast.

Under Guangdong's development plan for its refining industry, annual refining capacity would reach 63 million tons by 2010, Xinhua said.

The province consumed nearly a third of China's imports, it added.

REUTERS SD ND1726