UPDATE 1-China crude stocks at 86 days, near IEA level-Tanaka

* China's crude stocks equal to 86 days of imports - Tanaka

* Four days away from 90-day standard needed to join IEA

* Implies about 300 mln bbls oil stocks, more than estimated

BEIJING, July 3 - China's state and commercial stocks of crude oil are equivalent to 86 days of net imports, only 4 days short of the amount needed to join the International Energy Agency, IEA head Nobuo Tanaka said on Friday.

Based on net crude imports of 1.28 billion barrels last year, the figure suggests Chinese oil reserves of about 300 million barrels, far more than most estimates based on 100 million barrels of government reserves plus oil company inventories.

"China may now only be four days away from the 90 days IEA members are required to maintain," Tanaka told a conference in Beijing. "The figure is very surprising, I agree."

Tanaka said he would welcome China as an equal partner in the IEA, the industrialised world's energy watchdog and counterpoint to OPEC, but said he didn't if China would ever join.

China has filled its first phase of state oil reserves, which can hold 102 million barrels of oil, and may eventually build a third phase, which would take total storage capacity to 476 million barrels.

Chinese officials have said they want to use this year's lower oil prices to build up reserves of crude oil.

Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Agency, told Reuters last month that China aimed to eventually meet the OECD standard of 90 days, and had approved the construction of a second phase of oil reserves in a bid to get closer to that target. [ID:nPEK127080]

Although data on state reserves is hard to come by, information about commercial stocks is even more patchy, with two different sets of data produced monthly.

Analysts say China's commercial stocks have grown this year, partly as a result of hoarding by speculators expecting price rises.

For a factbox about China's state oil reserves, please click [ID:nPEK327394]

For a factbox about China's commercial oil storage, please click [ID:nPEK186345]