BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) reported Friday a net profit growth of 10.12 percent despite an operating loss in the refining sector of 7.926 billion yuan (979 million US dollars) in the first three quarters.

    Sinopec saw its income from principal operations for the first three quarters of 2005 reach 576.99 billion yuan (71.2 billion US dollars), up 38.14 percent, and net profit total of 26.48 billion yuan (3.27 billion US dollars), up 10.12 percent.

    Income from the principal operations of Sinopec for the third quarter totaled 217.74 billion yuan (26.9 billion US dollars), and net profit totaled 8.43 billion yuan (1.04 billion US dollars).

    During the first three quarters, the crude oil production volume of Sinopec reached 29,188,700 tons, a slight increase of 1.34 percent over the same period last year. Natural gas production reached 4.53 billion cubic meters, rising by 5.08 percent over last year.

    The average crude price realized by Sinopec for the first three quarters was 43.33 US dollars per barrel, which was 36.99 percent higher than the same period last year. The realized natural gas price was 2.27 US dollars per thousand cubic feet, up 9.66 percent from a year ago.

    The earning before interest and taxes (EBIT) from the exploration and production segment surged 82.63 percent to 31.84 billion yuan (3.93 billion US dollars) during this period.

    Sinopec refined 104.07 million tons of crude oil in the first three quarters, up 5.47 percent over the same period of 2004. And the production volume of light chemical feedstock increased by 19.06 percent compared to the same period of last year.

    Sinopec saw its total domestic distribution of refined product sreach 77.50 million tons, an increase of 10.42 percent over last year. Retail sales totaled 46.18 million tons, which was an increase of 19.74 percent from last year.

    Its total distribution volume during the period reached 15.42 million tons, rising by 2.66 percent over the same period last year. The proportion of retail and distribution sales to total sales was 79.50 percent.

    Due to the strict measures keeping domestic refined oil prices at a low level of the government, Sinopec saw its EBIT in the marketing and distribution segment in the first three quarters decrease 26.84 percent to 9.38 billion yuan (1.16 billion US dollars).

    Sinopec produced 3.85 million tons of ethylene in the first three quarters, an increase of 28.45 percent over the same period of last year, while the production volume of synthetic resin reached 5.55 million tons, up 23.14 percent from last year.

    The chemical segment reported an EBIT of 14.65 billion yuan (1.8 billion US dollars), a 25.84 percent increase over the same period of last year.

    Sinopec's capital expenditure in the first three quarters was 36.48 billion yuan (4.5 billion US dollars).

    The expenditure for the exploration and production segment was 15.01 billion yuan (1.85 billion US dollars). The newly added production capacity of crude oil totaled 2.98 million tons per year, and natural gas, 570 million cubic meters per year.

    Sinopec, China's largest oil refinery, is an integrated energy and chemical company. It is the first Chinese company to be listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai. Enditem