On Sunday, China’s Sinopec reported a 2.6% increase in net profit for the first half of the year as a result of rising oil prices. China Petrol and Compound Corp 600028.
According to a filing with the Shanghai stock exchange, or Sinopec, as it is officially known, reported on Sunday a net income of 37.1 billion yuan ($5.21 billion) for the months of January through June. Sales at Sinopec, the largest oil refiner in the world by capacity, decreased by 1.1% to 1.58 trillion yuan.
In contrast, ethylene production, an essential component of petrochemicals, decreased by 5.5% in the first half. Capital consumption was 55.9 billion yuan for the period. Sinopec previously reported that natural gas production increased by 6% to 700.57 billion cubic feet and crude oil output increased by 0.6 percent to 140.53 million barrels.
In a July stock market filing, the company stated that it processed 126.69 million metric tons of crude oil, or approximately 5.08 million barrels per day (bpd), an increase of 0.1 percent from the same time last year. This was in contrast to growth of 1.7% in the first quarter.
Higher crude oil prices and sluggish domestic fuel demand contributed to the slowdown. (This report has been updated to clarify that Sinopec H1 profit increased by 2.6% rather than 2.7%, and the reference to figures based on Chinese standards has been removed.)
