China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia's largest refinery by capacity, said its net profit surged 30 percent last year as strong sales and moderating crude oil prices in the latter part of the year helped offset a tripling in refining losses. The company, better known as Sinopec, said Tuesday that its net profit totaled 53.9 billion yuan (US$7 billion;¤5.2 billion) in 2006, up from 41.5 billion yuan in 2005. Sinopec's operating loss for its refineries jumped to 23.9 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion;¤2.3 billion) from 7.84 billion yuan in 2005, but a government subsidy worth 5 billion yuan (US$646.8 million;¤484 million) took away some of the sting. Sinopec also explores for and produces oil and natural gas, and growth in those areas boosted revenue to 1.05 trillion yuan (US$135.2 billion; ¤101 billion) from 799.3 billion yuan the year before, the company reported. The company's marketing division saw a 60.7 percent jump in operating profit on strong fuel sales last year. Sinopec recently launched a 20-year arrangement with fast-food giant McDonald's to set up drive-thru outlets at its pick of the refiner's 28,000 outlets _ China's largest network of filling stations, the Associated Press reported. «Following the guidelines of 'reform, restructuring, innovation and development,' the company further expanded its operations, improved asset quality, enhanced its profitability and achieved significant growth and earnings,» Chen Tonghai, Sinopec's chairman, said in a statement.
