In February, China's crude oil imports rose 20 percent year-on-year to their highest level ever. Due to the current market situation, the number of crude oil importers is rapidly increasing.

As the world's second-largest oil consumer, China imported 31.8 million metric tons of crude last month, or a record 8 million barrels a day, DeVos found, according to data released Tuesday by China's General Administration of Customs. . Per day, February's imports were also up about 27 percent from January's 6.29 million barrels per day.

Last week, Beijing-based consultancy SIA Energy claimed it hoped China's crude imports would rise by 860,000 bpd, or nearly 13 percent, in 2016, driven by storage needs, strong gasoline demand and fuel exports. China's largest energy group, state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), forecast in January that net crude imports would rise 7.3 percent in 2016.