Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's second-biggest energy consumer, may import more crude oil to enlarge its emergency stockpiles as declining prices make purchases cheaper, a government official said.

It is appropriate to buy oil when prices are low and funds are available, said the official, who helps oversee China's strategic oil reserves. The official declined to be named because of internal rules.

Government stockpiles will reach 12 million metric tons in 2010, or about 30 days of imports, Chen Deming, formerly the vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in September last year. China should capitalize on lower oil prices to boost its reserves, the International Energy Agency's Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in an interview on Nov. 18.

U.S. crude-oil prices have plunged almost 70 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel in July. Crude for January delivery was at $45.67 a barrel at 2:31 p.m. Singapore time on the New York Mercantile Exchange in electronic trading.

China started filling emergency stockpiles of crude oil in Shandong province last month, Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources. About 7.3 million barrels of crude, more than half of which are from Saudi Arabia, are now stored in tanks at Huangdao stockpile base, the newspaper said. China will boost the reserves in the next two months, it said.

The nation is setting up four stockpile bases in the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Shandong and Liaoning. The tanks were to be completed in 2008, the commission said in March last year.

The government has finished drawing up a plan to build the second phase of the country's oil stockpiling with a capacity of 26.8 million cubic meters, the commission said last month, without saying when construction will begin.

China had 2 million to 3 million tons of crude oil stored for emergency use, Chen said last year. Chen is now the country's commerce minister.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wang Ying in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: December 12, 2008 03:02 EST