Sinopec release profits in Q3

Chinese refiner Sinopec reported a decline in third-quarter net profit and revenue on Monday.

The world's largest refiner announced its capacity decrease, when it posted a 52.1 percent year-on-year decline in net profit to 8.54 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) for the third quarter while its revenue meanwhile was 790.4 billion yuan, down 9.8 percent from a year earlier, primarily due to lower oil prices and weak refining margins, the company said in a stock market filing on Monday.

Sinopec produced 211.29 million metric tons of crude oil during the first three quarters of 2024, up 0.3 percent on the year, while natural gas output rose 5.6 percent to 1,048 billion cubic feet, it said.

Capital expenditure for the first nine months dropped to 86.35 billion yuan. As much as 50.77 billion of that went to exploration and development, it said.

The company reported that China's apparent consumption of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel decreased by 1 percent in the first nine months, primarily due to a decline in diesel demand. Meanwhile, domestic natural gas consumption increased by 9.5 percent, and ethylene consumption saw a 3.9 percent rise during the same period.