BEIJING (Commodity Online) : World's second-largest energy-consuming nation, China started preliminary work on the second phase of its emergency oil reserves in Guangdong to help bolster energy security and meet demand.

According to Guangdong's development and reform commission, construction of storage bases in the cities of Zhanjiang and Huizhou will begin as soon as possible.

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China is embarking on a three-phase project to build emergency reserves, taking advantage of oil prices weakened by the global slowdown.

The government said last year it's planning to build the second phase in the northeast and that work on storage tanks in the western province of Xinjiang has commenced.

The first phase holds the equivalent of about 16.4 million cubic meters of oil, or about 30 days of net imports, China's energy administration said in June.

The stockpiles are located in Zhenhai and Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, Dalian in Liaoning province and Huangdao in Shandong province.

China will build oil reserves equal to 100 days of net imports before 2020, China Petrochemical Corp., the nation's top refiner said.

Chinese oil demand doubled in the last decade to 8 million barrels a day last year, with imports meeting 45 percent of requirements, BP Plc's Statistical Review shows. In 2009, overseas shipments accounted for more than half of the country's oil needs.

Crude oil imports may rise 15 percent this year as China starts building the second phase of its reserves, analysts said.

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