China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China's largest oil refiner, announced Friday that its crude oil output reached 147.38 million barrels in the first six months, up 2.43 percent from the same period last year.

     According to preliminary statistics released by Sinopec, it processed 84.25 million tonnes of crude oil in the first half, representing an increase of 6.73 percent over last January to June period.

     Sinopec's output of gasoline rose by 7.74 percent to 13.78 million tonnes; and diesel, up 13.01 percent to 33.80 million tonnes, in the first six months, driven by the country's booming demand for oil products.    

  
     Meanwhile, Sinopec produced four billion cubic meters of natural gas, up 3.30 percent over the same period last year.

     In the chemical sector, output of ethylene, synthetic resins and synthetic rubbers rose by 1.04 percent, 3.12 percent and 27.78 percent respectively from the same period last year.

     However, the output of synthetic fibers dropped by 5.55 percent to 681,000 tonnes and urea down 15.74 percent to 685,000 tonnes.

     Sinopec's total domestic sales volume of refined oil products rose by 8.81 percent year on year to 63.02 million tonnes in the first half year.

     This followed the company's Thursday announcement that its net profit in the first half of the year was expected to decline by more than 50 percent, because of the huge refinery losses caused by surging oil prices in the world market and a frozen government-fixed low price.

     It's net profit during 2007's January to June period was 34.93 billion yuan (4.99 billion U.S. dollars).

     Listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai, Sinopec is the largest oil refiner of China.