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PetroChina Co. is reported to have leased additional fuel oil storage capacity in California, only days after securing a much larger storage deal in the Caribbean.

The Chinese oil firm is understood to have reached an agreement with Texas-based Nustar Energy LP to lease 400,000 barrels of fuel oil storage in Los Angeles.

The deal follows an earlier agreement, also with Nustar, to lease 5 million barrels of oil storage capacity from its 13 million barrel Statia Terminal on the island of St. Eustatius.

It is understood that Beijing-based Petrochina will store bunker fuel in both locations.

The back-to-back deals appear to underscore China's efforts to establish a global petroleum trading network. PetroChina is owned by state-owned parent company China National Petroleum Corp.

Petrochina already leases an additional 1 million barrels of dirty storage capacity at the Statia Terminal, which is the largest fuel oil storage terminal in the Caribbean.

Hong Kong-listed PetroChina is a regular purchaser of fuel oil and crude oil from Venezuela, mostly for delivery to Asia. The company also has a total of 2.5 million barrels of dirty and clean storage space at the Bahamas Oil Refining Company (BORCO) oil storage terminal - renamed Vopak Terminal Bahamas - in Freeport, Bahamas. The tanks are used to store fuel oil, jet fuel and gasoline.

The Chinese oil firm is said to typically load fuel oil onboard ocean-going tankers at the Statia Terminal, and both crude and fuel oil at Vopak Terminal Bahamas.

For clean products, the company leases tank space on the Gulf Coast as well as in New York Harbor. Market sources report that PetroChina may also have oil storage space of approximately 500,000 barrels in St. Lucia.