China is building underground caverns capable of holding up to a quarter of its expanded strategic oil reserves by 2020, as it looks for new storage methods away from expensive and exposed above-ground tanks in crowded coastal regions. In a move to improve its energy security and take advantage of cheap oil, China is spending billions of dollars to build up strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) to meet up to 90 day’s worth of net import demand in case of a disruption. While many western countries make SPR data public, China rarely gives detailed information on its oil reserves or locations. So far, China has built almost all of its SPR tanks above ground, but now at least five underground sites have been identified, with one […]