Sinopec projects 50% rise in H1 profit

China's oil giant Sinopec Group announced Tuesday that its net profit is expected to reach 27.09 billion yuan ($3.98 billion) in the first half of the year, surging by 50 percent, as crude oil price in the global market increased in the period.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, a trading subsidiary of the group, said the international upward trend of oil price in the first six months significantly boosted the company's upstream business, while its midstream and downstream operations upgraded structure to ride the wave of the favorable market situation.

Each share could gain 0.224 yuan, said the announcement.

As data released by the company on Tuesday showed, Sinopec produced 123.68 million barrels of crude oil from Jan-June, up 0.42 percent year-on-year; output of gasoline rose by 5.74 percent to 30.04 million tons, while diesel's production declined by 1.78 percent, from last year's 32.67 million tons to 32.09 million tons this year.

Refined oil sales in the domestic market was 88.45 million tons, up 1.41 percent compared with last year's 87.22 million tons, Sinopec said.