China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia’s biggest refiner, posted a 7.5% increase in first- half profit as oil and gas production expanded.
Net income was 32.5 billion yuan ($5.3 billion), or 0.28 yuan a share, in the six months ended June 30 from 30.3 billion yuan, or 0.25 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based company, known as Sinopec, said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. The average of six analyst estimates, compiled by Bloomberg, was a profit of 30 billion yuan.
The results come as China’s government pushes to restructure state-controlled companies and allow markets a bigger role in the allocation of resources. Sinopec is at the forefront of this change as it seeks to raise 100 billion yuan ($16.2 billion) selling about a third of its retail unit.
Oil and gas output rose 8% to 237 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The average price for Brent, the benchmark for half of the world’s crude, rose to $108.82 a barrel in the period from $107.88 a year ago.
The refiner is the first among China’s three biggest oil companies to report half-year results. PetroChina Co., the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, and Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil and gas explorer, will both report first- half earnings on Aug. 28.