China: Sinopec, Asia's leading oil refiner and commonly known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, has reported an 11.8% decline in its net income for the first quarter. This was mainly due to the reduced crude oil prices. However, the company experienced an improvement in refined fuel sales once COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in Beijing. Sinopec recorded a net profit of 20.1 billion yuan ($2.90 billion), as opposed to 22.61 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Refinery throughput has experienced a decline of 3% from last year, reaching 62.24 million tonnes, or approximately 5.05 million barrels per day (bpd). Gasoline output has decreased by 8% year on year, while Diesel has gone down by 0.9%. Despite this, total sales of refined fuel have increased by 10% in the first quarter, which indicates a rise in demand for gasoline and aviation fuel due to an uptick in travel post the lifting of COVID restrictions towards the end of 2022.

While the crude oil production of the company increased by 0.6% to 69.49 million barrels, its petrochemicals arm faced a decline. The division produced 7.2% less Ethylene this year, resulting in a loss of 3.02 billion yuan before tax and interest. On a positive note, the natural gas output of the company increased by 5.3% to 330.5 billion cubic feet.

The capital expenditure of the company saw a decline from 25.38 billion yuan to 23.4 billion yuan in the past year. Most of the spending, approximately 64 per cent, has been allocated towards the exploration and development sector, including the extraction of shale oil, which is known to be a more challenging process.