China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) reported Tuesday that its net profit in the first quarter rose 85.1 percent year on year, because of lower international crude oil prices and adjusted refined oil prices on the domestic market.

Net profit totaled 11.219 billion yuan (1.64 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter, due to the country's adjusted refined oil pricing mechanism since the beginning of this year, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets.

Sinopec saw its net profit drop by 69 percent to about 6 billion yuan in the first three months of 2008 because of China's price ceilings on refined oil products and global oil price rises.

The slump in the international crude oil prices has given a positive boost to the performance of Sinopec, the country's top refiner, as the government launched the new pricing mechanism for refined products in 2009, which ensured profits of oil refiners, despite the still weak demand in the domestic market.

The company predicted its net profit for the first half of 2009would increase by more than 50 percent year on year.

In contrast, PetroChina Company Limited, reported Monday its net profit in the first quarter slid 35.3 percent year on year to 18.956 billion yuan, pulled down by the low price of crude oil and less demand.

PetroChina is the leading oil producer of China, with most crude oil it refined produced by the company itself, while Sinopec has over 70 percent of its crude oil imported.

The amount of crude oil refined by Sinopec fell 3.27 percent year on year, but was up 1.21 percent quarter on quarter. The company attributed these movements to the macro-economic situation, but it gave no details on this and did not specify the production figures.

Listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai, Sinopec is the listed subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group).

Share prices of the company in the mainland A-share market dropped by 2.38 percent to 9.44 yuan on Tuesday, and down 4.11 percent in the Hong Kong market to 5.6 Hong Kong dollars (72 cents).

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2009)