Largest integrated energy and chemical companies, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp) announced its financial results for the first half of fiscal year 2005.

Under IFRS, the turnover and other operating revenues of the Company totaled RMB 368.45 billion (US$44.50 billion), an increase of 31.85% over the first half of 2004. Profit attributable to equity holders of the parent amounted to RMB 19.65 billion (US$2.37 billion), an increase of 17.36% over the first half of 2004. Earnings per share was RMB 0.227 based on the number of shares outstanding at the end of the reporting period.

Under the PRC Accounting Rules and Regulations, revenues from principal operations totaled RMB 359.24 billion (US$43.39 billion), an increase of 35.20% over the first half of 2004. Net profit totaled RMB 18.04 billion (US$2.18 billion), an increase of 19.98% compared to the first half of 2004. Earnings per share was RMB 0.208 based on the number of shares outstanding at the end of the reporting period.

“During the first half of 2005, international prices of crude oil were very volatile and the price differential between domestic and overseas refined oil products widened further due to the austerity price controls on domestic refined oil products. Such price controls kept domestically refined oil product prices substantially lower than crude oil prices. Despite this challenging environment, the Company successfully managed to deliver fairly strong results by optimizing resource allocation, adjusting its corporate structure, strengthening internal management and maximizing the synergies between the energy and petrochemical businesses.” commented Sinopec Corp. Chairman, Chen Tonghai.

The Board of Directors has approved the payment of an interim dividend of RMB 0.04 per share for the first half of 2005. This is equivalent to RMB 4.00 (US$0.48) per American Depositary Share (ADS).

Refining
The Company strengthened facilities operations management to reach full utilization in order to meet market demand. This was accomplished while improving the overall quality standards of refined products as well as implementing facilities maintenance requirements. In the first half of the year, crude processing volumes reached 68.08 million tons, a 4.77% increase compared to the same period last year.

Marketing and Distribution
The Company focused on meeting domestic market demand through various procurement channels. Total domestic sales of refined products reached 50.77 million tonnes, an increase of 11.61% compared to the same period last year. The Company also proactively expanded its market, resulting in an increase in retail and direct sales. The proportion of retail and direct sales to the Company’s total domestic sales increased to 78.69% from 76.24% in the same period last year. Furthermore, the widespread application of IC cards at petrol stations reached new highs as the cards were used in 13,000 petrol stations.

Chemicals Segment
In the first half of 2005, capitalizing on the upturn cycle in the chemical sector, the Company fully utilized the newly added production capacity and reinforced operation management to ensure safe, long-term and full-capacity production.

The production of major chemical products experienced growth, but at varied paces. The production volume of ethylene reached 2.434 million tons, an increase of 16.96% over the same period last year, while the production of other major chemical products, such as synthetic resin, synthetic rubber and monomers and polymers for synthetic fiber, also increased. The Company actively pursued the reform of its chemical marketing systems and on 10 May 2005, a chemical sales subsidiary was established. This is a critical adjustment that allows the Company to establish and develop a unified chemical product marketing network to build a unified image, improve market competitiveness, and maximize overall efficiency. Thanks to the continuous optimization of the Company’s asset structure over the past few years, the chemical segment realized an operating profit of RMB10.82 billion (US$1.31 billion), an 80.10% increase over the same period last year.

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Sinopec Corp is the first Chinese company that has been listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai. The Company is an integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations.

The principal operations of Sinopec Corp and its subsidiaries include: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; processing crude oil into refined oil products; producing, trading, transporting, distributing and marketing refined oil products; and producing and distributing chemical products. Based on 2004 turnover, Sinopec Corp. is the largest listed company in China.

Beijing based this company is one of the largest crude oil and petrochemical companies in China and Asia. It is also one of the largest gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and other major chemical products producers and distributors in China and Asia.
 
Sinopec Corp