Construction of a depot for a tar-based fuel called orimulsion started Wednesday at Zhanjiang City, in south China's Guangdong Province.
The depot is expected to be the largest of its kind in the country.
The Fuel Co. Ltd. of China's state-owned National Petroleum Corporation, is investing in the depot at Zhanjiang Port. Designedto have a total storage capacity of one million cubic meters, it is scheduled to be finished in 2004.
By then, the depot will be used to store orimulsion produced bya Sino-Venezuelan joint venture in Venezuela. The joint venture will produce 6.5 million metric tons a year of orimulsion by 2004,all of which will be exported to China.