The Singapore unit of China's major jet fuel provider China Aviation Oil Group (CAO) has recovered from losses, according to CAO sources.

From 2006 to 2007, the Singapore unit made 69.7 million U.S. dollars of profits through the oil business and returns on other investments, CAO's general manager Sun Li told Xinhua on Sunday. The Singapore-listed company also paid off debts four years in advance and issued high dividends, Sun said. The company purchased 8.9 million tons of aviation oil from 2006 to 2007.

The company's former chief executive officer (CEO) Chen Jiulin received a sentence of four years and three months imprisonment and a fine of 335,000 Singapore dollars (about 207,443 U.S. dollars) after pleading guilty to charges of cheating, false reporting and insider trading

The company lost over 500 million U.S. dollars to speculative trading by Chen Jiulin in 2004. The dealt a huge blow to the company and raised central government concern over overseas management of state-owned assets. Sun said the CAO group as a whole supplied a record 14.51 million tons of aviation oil and other oil products last year, up 49 percent from 2005. It ensured aviation oil supply for 90 percent of China's airlines.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 23, 2008)