China’s Oil Giant Sees Net Profit of 133.36 Billion Yuan in 2005

China’s oil giant sees net profit of 133.36 billion yuan in 2005

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) — The China National Petroleum Corporation, the country’s oil giant, scored a net profit of 133.36 billion yuan (16.61 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005, up 28.4 percent year on year.

The company’s profit in 2006 is expected to keep growing, mainly due to the profit rise in the upper stream business, natural gas and oil refining sectors, according to Vice President Jiang Jiemin of the company.

Last year, the company achieved a turnover of 552.23 billion yuan (68.77 billion dollars), up 39 percent over the previous year. Top priority was given to oil and gas exploration, with crude oil and natural gas reserves expanded by 864 million barrels and 118.86 billion cubic meters, respectively.

Although crude oil the company processed last year rose by 6 percent to 752.3 million barrels, the sector’s profit dropped 19.81 billion yuan (2.47 billion dollars) due to the government macro- economic control over the price of oil products.