China could see a surge in crude-oil imports in the weeks ahead if refiners and state-owned oil companies take advantage of an opportunity to stock up on cheap oil.

If so, this could help provide a floor to global oil prices, which have plunged as much as 15% since the start of the week due to economy and debt worries in the U.S. and Europe .

The fall is good news for Chinese refiners, who have been taking a beating for months as they can't fully pass on the high price of imported crude to end users in China 's regulated domestic fuel market. And imports keep climbing-- China recently saw its dependency on imported oil rise to 53%.

In the first five months of 2011, China 's refining-sector profits fell by almost 59% due to high global crude prices, the National Development and Reform Commission said.

Fighting inflation is a top priority for Beijing , so the NDRC is likely to be quicker to authorize domestic gasoline and diesel price cuts than it has been in allowing increases. But until then, Chinese refiners will want to rush to secure cheap oil, and boost domestic sales of refined products.

The government last changed the ex-factory price of diesel and gasoline in early April. Its price mechanism tracks a basket of global crude prices on a 22-day cycle, and it can trigger an adjustment if crude moves outside a 4% range during that period.

If oil prices stay at current levels, this could prompt a price cut as early as September, said Li Li, an analyst at C1 Energy. The value of China's crude basket, which includes benchmark Brent, will likely be down by more than 4%, prompting the government to cut gasoline and diesel prices by as much as CNY300 a ton, or $6.20 a barrel, she said.

China could also buy cheaper oil for its strategic petroleum reserves. It is building storage tanks for another 170 million barrels by mid-2013, on top of the 103 million barrels poured into tanks constructed in the first stage of its SPR program.

SPR buying by Chinese companies on behalf of the state came to a near standstill at the end of 2010 when crude began pushing toward the high $80s a barrel, said Paul Ting, president of Paul Ting Energy Vision, in a note earlier this year. Nymex crude futures for September delivery are now below $85 a barrel after a sharp, fresh sell off Friday.

"We are holding onto our bearish bias for the day, but oil below the $90-a-barrel mark should be looking very cheap for the long term players--after all, China did not go anywhere," analysts at The Schork Report said Friday.

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