China?s No.2 and No. 3 oil giants
announced Monday that they registered huge profits due to sales increases and
cost-cutting efforts, Tuesday?s China Daily reports.
China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), the second largest domestic oil
company, said its net profit in the first half of this year surged 27.5 percent
to 9.5 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars).
Sinopec, the largest refiner in Asia, said in a statement that profit was
derived from the expansion of crude oil and natural gas production, and that
sales rose for refined oil and petrochemical products at a higher price during
the period.
On Monday, China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), the third largest oil
company, announced it made pre-tax earnings of 6.5 billion yuan (about 785.9
million U.S. dollars), up 11.3 percent year-on-year.
But CNOOC?s net profit for the six-month period dropped by 4.2 percent to 4.62
billion yuan (about 588 million U.S. dollars) due to higher taxes.
The company is required to pay a normal 30 percent profit tax, doubling a
favorable 15 percent that had been granted before CNOOC was listed in Hong Kong
and New York in February this year.
Normalized tax rates resulted in a rise in tax expense of 1.84 billion yuan (222
million U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, CNOOC?s statement said.
As for Sinopec, analysts said the company?s profit growth resulted from the
price hike of domestic refined oil products and the company?s cost-cutting
program.
Neftegaz.ru
