China creates office to safeguard energy (Agencies) Updated: 2005-04-28 16:24 China has created a powerful new agency to oversee
the country's energy security amid booming demand for power and surging oil
imports, a newspaper reported.
The State Energy Office will supervise
China's state-owned oil companies and a newly created strategic petroleum
reserve, The Asian Wall Street Journal said Thursday. It cited an unidentified
official of the Chinese Cabinet's State Development and Reform
Commission.
The Chinese government is alarmed at the country's growing
dependence on imported oil to fuel its surging economy, whose annual growth has
topped 9 percent in recent years.
The State Energy Office will report
directly to the State Council, giving it greater influence than other regulatory
agencies, the Journal said.
It said the office would be led by Ma Kai,
who also heads the development and reform commission, which oversees China's
economic reforms.
The office's mandate could extend to securing foreign
gas and oil, managing domestic coal supplies, resolving chronic electricity
shortages and forcing factories to raise efficiency and cut pollution, the
report said.
According to the Journal, Ma's deputies at the new agency
will include Ma Fucai, who resigned as general manager of China's biggest oil
company, China National Petroleum Corp, after a gas field accident in 2003
killed 243 people.
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