Use cheap oil to build more reserves, say analysts

China should start building more strategic oil reserves before international oil prices bounce back to a higher level, industry researchers said.

"The plummeting crude oil prices has given us a perfect chance to increase our strategic oil reserve capacity, but it is a shame that we don't have enough tanks to store them. The government should really press on with the construction," Lin Boqiang, director of the Center for Energy Economic Research of China in Xiamen University, told China Daily.

China recently completed construction of four oil stockpiles. Two of them are in Zhejiang, one in Shandong and the other is in Liaoning. These reserves, together, represent the first phase of its strategic oil-reserve plan.