(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-08 23:02

BEIJING -- China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil producer, will install a command center on the distribution of refined oil products this year to improve supply efficiency amidst oil shortage.

The center with its layout designed by the China Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering Institute has entered feasibility study, and may be put to use in August at the earliest, China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday.

The CNPC on Monday announced the set-up of an oil storage tank in Changde City, the first of its kind in Central China's Hunan Province, which has a capacity of 20,000 cubic meters.

The depot covering a land area of 38,000-square-meter cost the company 52 million yuan (US$7.18 million) and will receive oil supply from CNPC refineries in Northeast and Northwest China and ease Hunan's oil shortage.

The world crude oil price has rocketed from US$70 a barrel in July last year to around US$100 a barrel last week, but the refined oil price in China remained regulated by the government.

Although the government has raised the refined price four times since 2006 to the current average price of about US$65 a barrel, media reports said that some refiners still stopped production due to high costs, leading to strained oil supply in some areas and prompting the  building of oil storage tanks in various locales.

Southern China's Guangdong Province has submitted an application for the establishment of depots for both strategic oil reserve and commerce use.

Local trade and commerce authorities also planned to closely monitor oil storage of CNPC and Sinopec to make sure the stockpile can last for at least five days.