ERHC Energy Inc (ERHE)

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Sinopec profit rises 5.5pc

Kathy Wang

Monday, April 07, 2008

Asia's biggest refiner, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (0386), or Sinopec, reported yesterday its net profit in 2007 increased 5.5 percent to 56.5 billion yuan (HK$62.7 billion).
Turnover jumped 13.4 percent to 1.2 trillion yuan.

The board declared a final dividend of 11.5 fen per share, up slightly from 11 fen for 2006.

Meanwhile, Sinopec announced it is proposing to issue up to 20 billion yuan of domestic corporate bonds.

The final rate of the five-to-10-year bond will not exceed 90 percent of the rate for yuan loans as announced by the People's Bank of China for the same tenure at the time of the issue.

The mainland's largest integrated oil and gas producer reported its production of crude reached 291.7 million barrels, up 2.3 percent year on year.

Output of natural gas increased 10.2 percent to 282.6 billion cubic feet.

Total production of refined oil products reached 93.1 million tonnes, an increase of 6.7 percent.

Exploration expenses reached 11.1 billion yuan, rising 39.1 percent. Crude oil purchase expense was 483.9 billion yuan, up 8.9 percent over 2006. Crude purchase expense accounted for 43.1 percent of the total operating expense, a drop of 2 percent.

Riding on the high oil price, Sinopec reported external sales in 2007 amounted to 20.4 billion yuan, an increase of 2.5 percent over 2006, accounting for 1.7 percent of turnover.

Sinopec plans to raise its capital expenditure budget by 11 percent to 121.8 billion yuan for 2008.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=2&art_id=63978&sid=18381041&con_type=1&d_str=20080407&fc=1