MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese state-controlled energy giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. said that oil and gas production slipped nearly 2% in 2015 amid sharply falling domestic production from aging fields, said The Wall Street Journal.
In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange late Wednesday, the company, known commonly as Sinopec, also said diesel output dropped 5.67% to about 70 million metric tons last year as weak industrial activity weighed on demand in the world’s second-largest economy.
Gasoline output rose 5.39% to about 54 million tons, Sinopec said, as more Chinese first-time drivers took to the nation’s roads.
The latest Sinopec operating statistics underscore why China’s state-owned oil companies have been on a quest to buy resources around the world in recent years. Sinopec’s domestic oil production fell nearly 5% to about 296 million barrels last year, making the company increasingly reliant on oil produced overseas to fuel its refineries.
The company, China’s second-biggest oil and gas producer by volume, also said natural-gas production rose 2.6% last year to 735 billion cubic feet.
As MRC informed earlier, in December 2015, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), completed its 10-percent minority investment in Russian petrochemical company Sibur to serve as a strategic investor.
Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally.
MRC