CHINA Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's largest oil refiner, processed 6.4 percent more crude in the first half as China's economic growth boosted demand for fuels to run power plants, cars and machinery.

Oil refining rose to 76.25 million metric tons in the first six months, Sinopec, as Beijing-based China Petroleum is known, said on its Website yesterday. Crude oil production increased 2.1 percent and natural gas output gained 11 percent.
Sinopec supplies about two-thirds of the fuels consumed in the world's fastest-growing major economy, Bloomberg News reported. A jump in sales of chemicals, gasoline and diesel will boost profit by more than 50 percent from a year earlier in the six months ending June, Sinopec said in April. Shares of Sinopec, Asia's second-largest publicly traded company by sales, fell 1.6 percent to HK$8.54 at 10:09am in Hong Kong yesterday. The stock has more than doubled in the past year.