The head of China's energy policy bureau said Friday that construction of China's first strategic petroleum reserve base in Zhenhai, in the eastern Zhejiang Province, will be completed in August.

Xu Dingming, director general of the Energy Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said construction of the other three bases was on schedule.

Xu told the ongoing "2006 International Strategic Development and Investment on Energy Summit" that the Zhenhai base required a government inspection and approval to begin operating, but he gave no dates.

The government announced the building of the bases in 2004 to prevent the country's oil supply being exposed to risks or interruption.

The first four bases are in Zhenhai and Daishan of Zhejiang Province, Huangdao in east China's Shandong Province, and Dalian in the northeastern Liaoning Province.

No imported oil would be bought for the bases so long as international prices remained high said Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of the NDRC, earlier.

The bases are included in the government's social and economic development plan for 2006 to 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2006)