BEIJING- Saudi Arabia committed itself to increase its oil and natural gas supply to China by 39 per cent, according to agreements of cooperation on oil, gas and minerals signed during a recent visit of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to China. Moreover, the two governments will jointly establish a large oil storage base in China's southernmost island province of Hainan.
Saudi Arabia is the largest oil supplier to China. During the first 11 months of 2005, it provided China with 410,000 barrels of oil per day on the average, accounting for 17 per cent of China's total oil import.
Construction of the large commercial oil storage base located in Yangpu, Hainan, is scheduled start in 2007 and the project will be put into operation in 2009. Covering an area of two square kilometers, the base will have a designed storage capacity of 100 million cubic meters. The project requires the fixed assets investment of about 7 billion yuan (US$868 million) with the circulating capital of 20 billion yuan.
In 2001, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, once cooperated with Sinopec and Exxon Mobil in building a refining and chemical project in east China's Fujian Province with an investment of US$3.5 billion.
PIN/ASIA PULSE
کد خبر 79051