The report predicts that by the middle of 2004 China should replace Japan as Asia's largest oil consumer. Its hunger, allied with the demand for oil from its Asian neighbours, has made less crude available for European and US-based refiners.

According to the IEA, "The breakneck pace of Chinese economic expansion is rapidly changing the oil demand map. At this juncture, China is the engine of global oil demand growth with significant room for further expansion in the industrial and transportation sectors."