BEIJING -- China is planning to quadruple its strategic oil reserves to 12 million tons within three years and secure roughly the equivalent of one month's import by 2010, state media said Thursday.
 
By 2020, reserves will be further raised to the equivalent of three months' import, the Shanghai Securities News said, citing Chen Deming, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency.
 
China started to build four strategic oil reserves in 2004, and two of them are already in operation. So far it has invested about six billion yuan ($795 million) to secure storage of 10 million tons, earlier reports said.
 
Oil companies in China also keep commercial reserves equivalent to 21 days' import, the Shanghai Securities News said.
 
China, the world's second-largest importer of oil, has seen its demand for energy rocket as a result of its explosive economic growth, which has been double-digit for four consecutive years.
 
It has been a net importer of oil since 1993, and imported 138.8 million tons of crude in 2006, up 16.9 percent from the previous year.
 
Imports last year accounted for 47 percent of the country's overall consumption, and industry observers have warned imports might make up more than 50 percent of China's petroleum needs in a year or two.
 
The Middle East has traditionally been China's main source of oil, but after its vulnerability was highlighted in the second Iraq war, it has sought to seek energy elsewhere in the world.
 
Agence France-Presse