SINOPEC’s third-quarter profits contracted as China’s biggest oil refiner increasingly finds itself under pressure from the nation’s economic woes and embrace of electrified transportation.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, as the firm is officially known, said its net profit fell to 8.03 billion yuan (S$1.5 billion) in the third quarter, from 17.9 billion yuan a year earlier, according to an exchange filing on Monday (Oct 28).
Oil refining is among the sectors that have borne the brunt of China’s economic slowdown, with cumulative losses for the industry totaling 32 billion yuan this year through September. Construction slowdowns have dampened diesel demand, while petrol has been hit by rising electric vehicle sales, and some petrochemical margins have plummeted as new plants flood the market with supply.
Global oil prices are not helping the company’s drilling operations, either. Brent crude averaged about US$79 a barrel in the third quarter, down from US$86 in the same period the previous year. BLOOMBERG
