Sinopec H1 fuel sales fall 8.4% to 57.7 mln tons

Shanghai, July 21 (Gasgoo.com) China's state-run oil refiner Sinopec Corp, which supplies nearly half of the world's second-largest oil market, said today that its fuel sales fell 8.43% from a year earlier to 57.71 million tons in the first half of 2009, xinhuanet.com reported.

Domestic sales of refined oil products by the top refiner in Asia declined 4.8% from a year earlier to about 31.28 million tons in the past three months, compared with a 12.4% drop in the first quarter, a hint that demand could be recovering in China, which is now becoming the world's largest auto market.

The trend, in line with earlier remarks by company executives on a gradual rise in fuel sales, also matches climbing implied oil demand that rose 6% in May over a year ago in its fastest growth since August 2008, Reuters calculations showed.

The oil giant processed 86.9 million tons of crude oil, or 3.5 million barrels per day, in the first half this year, up 1.82% from a year earlier. The volume accounted for around half of China's total crude throughput for the period. Crude oil output totaled 149.12 million barrels, up 1.18%.

Sinopec geared up refinery production in the second quarter to meet rising sales, which in part were triggered by market anticipation for two hikes in retail pump price in June by a total 15% or so.