China Makes First Crude Fill to Strategic Storage

China will make its first crude fill into its second strategic oil storage facility at Aoshan by the end of May, signalling Beijing's determination to bolster its emergency inventories despite high oil prices.

The delivery of about 2 million barrels of Middle East crude into Aoshan comes after the world's second-largest consumer finished filling its first 33 million barrel facility, part of its target of a 100 million barrel buffer by the end of 2008.

"There is never a good time to buy, but they are clearly moving forward to complete the first stage of the strategic fill," said Kang Wu, a senior fellow at the East-West Centre in Hawaii, also associated with Facts Global Energy.