China's Sinopec (0386) reported 25.3 percent year-on-year growth in net profit for the first three quarters this year due to the rising crude oil prices and improved margins of refining and chemical products.
Formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Sinopec's net profit stood at 40.2 billion yuan (HK$47.3 billion) in the nine months ended 30 September. Revenue increased 4.4 percent to 2.2 trillion yuan, according to an exchange filing on Thursday.
Affected by geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, the average spot price of Platts Brent was US$94.05 (HK$738) a barrel, up 32.7 percent year-on-year.
The world's largest refining group by capacity said that it pursued diversified crude sourcing and adjusted its resource allocation, and increased the yield of high value-added products such as jet fuel and refining by-products as a result of improved margins.
But high oil prices weighed on demand, while faster new-energy substitution dragged down consumption of domestic refined oil by 8.6 percent. Domestic demand for key chemicals remained soft, with ethylene-equivalent consumption falling 9.4 percent year-on-year, it said.
Crude oil production dipped 0.1 percent over the period. Refining throughput fell 10 percent to 167 million tons, while natural gas output rose 1.4 percent.
For the third quarter alone, Sinopec's net profit rose 63.6 percent to 13.6 billion yuan with a 9.3 percent growth in revenue to 770 billion yuan.
Frank Feng
