China To Start Filling Strategic Reserve  

I've previously read predictions saying that the Chinese will begin filling their strategic petroleum reserve in August, but this report makes it sound like things are going a bit slower than expected.

China will begin filling it's strategic oil reserve by the end of the year, a Chinese oil official said Tuesday. "We'll start filling the reserve in the fourth quarter of the year with domestic supply," Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said on the sidelines of a conference in New Orleans.

China is now beginning construction of storage tanks to hold the reserve and will have some ready by the end of the year, Zhang said. Analysts believe the stockpiling of reserve oil could add further pressure to a market in which demand is already stretching producers' ability to meet it and also keep enough capacity in reserve to cushion supply disruptions.