CHINA'S oil refineries processed seven percent more crude into fuels in the first half of 2007 than a year earlier to meet increased demand in the world's fastest-growing major economy.
Crude oil processing volume rose to 161 million metric tons, according to National Bureau of Statistics figures released in Beijing yesterday.

Last month's crude oil processing volume rose 9.8 percent to 28 million tons from a year earlier, it said. First-half coal output rose 11.4 percent to 1.08 billion tons, after coal producers increased output by 9.8 percent to 202 million tons in June, it added.