CHINA will probably commission additional storage sites for its strategic petroleum reserve this year, boosting crude demand even as construction work on the program takes longer than expected, the International Energy Agency said yesterday.

The world's second-biggest oil consumer will add 245 million barrels of capacity in the second phase of its emergency stockpile plan, the Paris-based IEA said. That's up 45 percent from the IEA's original estimate of 169 million barrels. Completion may be delayed to 2015, said the agency, which originally said the project would be finished by the end of this year.

China is building emergency oil reserves equivalent to 100 days of net imports before 2020 in three phases to lessen the risk of supply disruptions, China Petrochemical Corp has said.