China’s Sinopec 2013 net profit up 3.5%

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), the country’s largest oil refiner, announced Sunday its net profits rose 3.5% year on year in 2013.The net profit stood at 66.13 billion yuan about (10.76 billion US dollars) as calculated according to the international financial reporting standards, the company said in a statement filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.By the Chinese reporting standards, Sinopec’s business profit gained 9.7% to 96.45 billion yuan in 2013 while the net profit rose 5.8% to 67.19 billion yuan, according to China’s (Xinhua) News Agency.The refinery sector gained 3.2% to 131.13 billion yuan last year, which ended the losses of 11.95 billion yuan in 2012 and 37.61 billion yuan in 2011, according to the report.In 2013, Sinopec produced 443 million barrels of crude oil, up 3.48% from a year ago. Considering the 6.6% decline of the global crude oil price last year, the company’s crude oil business profit dropped 21.8% to 54.8 billion yuan.The company also announced more input in the shale gas business development this year, targeting to expand new production capacity of 1.8 billion cubic meters per year. Meanwhile, the company will expand business channels and attract more social and private capital in 2014.