CHINA Petroleum & Chemical Corp forecast a 2.4-percent gain in crude oil production next year as the company strains to meet energy demand in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Sinopec, as China's second-biggest oil producer is known, plans to produce 817,000 barrels of oil a day in 2008, it said in a report on sustainable development posted on its Website yesterday. The Beijing-based firm aims to pump 798,000 barrels a day this year, it said in April, two percent more than in 2006. An economic growth pace that reached 11.1 percent last year has forced China to rely increasingly on imported oil.