The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country's biggest oil and gas producer, signed a 30-year contract with US Chevron Corp. to jointly develop a large gas field in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The 1,969-square-kilometer gas field, located in the northeastern part of Sichuan, has proven reserves of 175.97 billion cubic meters, making the CNPC-Chevron cooperation China's largest inland exploration project participated in by a foreign explorer.

China announced Tuesday the setting up of a national oil reserve center, confirmed by the National Development and Reform Commission. The center, the administrative body of the country's national oil reserve system, takes the responsibility of building and making use of the country's strategic oil reserves, the commission said in a statement. The center will also keep an eye on the movement of demand and supply of both domestic and international oil markets. The commission said the country has decided to establish four strategic oil reserve bases, in Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo, and Zhoushan. All of them are on the coast. The first one in Ningbo, eastern China's Zhejiang Province, has already started to stock up on oil.

China and the United States, two of the world's largest consumers of oil, have agreed to cooperate on the use of their strategic petroleum reserves. The US and China agreed to strengthen cooperation on construction and management of strategic oil stocks. Coordinated use of strategic petroleum reserves increases energy security for net oil-importing countries during times of significant supply disruption.