In April 2015, China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest crude oil importer. Some observers hold that with the changes to world energy landscape, China might exercise bigger influence and have a greater say in the future global oil market.

According to Lin Boqiang, director for the energy economics research center at Xiamen University, it is not certain whether China will import more crude oil than the U.S in May, but there is a high possibility that China exceeds the U.S. in terms of annual crude oil import in 2015.

In Dec. 2012, China was already importing an average of 6.12m barrels of crude oil a day, compared to 5.98m barrels a day in the U.S.

National strategic oil reserve with a capacity of seven million tons of crude oil

As the oil price rout deepens, China is accelerating the building of energy reserve programs. In 2014, the National Bureau of Statistics of China released information about the state petroleum reserve for the first time. In the first stage, China has chosen Zhoushan, Zhenhai, Dalian and Huangdao as the national oil reserve bases with the capacity to hold up to 12,430,000 tons (16,400,000 cubic meters). The second batch of strategic oil reserve bases in Huizhou and Qingdao will be put into operation soon. Now, China is weighing the idea of a third batch of strategic oil reserve bases.

Sinopec says that China's strategic petroleum reserve has a capacity equating to about 30 days of oil at China's daily consumption level and is expected to expand to a capacity of up to 100 days of oil at China's daily consumption level by 2020.

Build a strategic energy security system

Lin Boqiang warns that by 2035, China will import nearly 80 percent of crude oil from foreign countries. He suggested China should build a national strategic energy security system in advance. In addition, he recommended that China must do more to diversify China's import sources for oil, and to create alternative energy sources to reduce its dependence on oil imports.

Zhu Tong, director for energy economics centers at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, added that China should deepen reform in the oil and gasoline field and build an open market with orderly competition by breaking monopolies.