PetroChina started operating a 200,000 cubic metre tank last week in Rudong, eastern Jiangsu province, as well as regasification facilities and pipelines, according to a report published on the website of China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp, an engineering unit under China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

CNPC is also the parent of PetroChina, China’s largest oil and gas producer.

The new Rudong facilities are part of a second-phase expansion that brought its handling capacity to 6.5 million tonnes a year, up from a 3.5 million tonnes a year. After the expansion, Rudong has 680,000 cubic metres of storage space.

PetroChina is also test running a new storage tank this week at its Dalian terminal in the northeast, and that is expected to double its receiving capacity there to 6 million tonnes a year, according to two industry officials with direct knowledge of the expansion.

PetroChina said last week it would raise natural gas supply this winter by 7 percent compared from a year earlier by pumping more from onshore domestic fields like Longwangmiao and also by moderately raising imports.

Apart from Dalian and Rudong, PetroChina owns a third LNG import terminal in Tangshang, near the capital city of Beijing.