Sinopec's first-half 2018 profit rises 53.6 percent on higher fuel margins, gas output

BEIJING (Reuters) - China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, the country's largest refiner, reported on Sunday that net income in the first half of 2018 rose 53.6 percent from a year ago, beating a company forecast of 50 percent profit growth as the upstream and refining sectors delivered strong results.

Net income for the company, known as Sinopec, for the period was 41.6 billion yuan ($6.05 billion), the company said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Total revenue in the first six months of the year rose to 1.3 trillion yuan, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier, amid higher crude prices, rising natural gas production and stronger fuel margins, the statement said.

"Sinopec ramped up efforts to sell fuel in domestic market by giving a discount especially for diesel in the second quarter. The discounts have boosted sales volume but hurt revenue," Eyebright Securities said in a research note last week after the company gave a results forecast.

The company does not give a breakdown for results for the second quarter but, based on Reuters calculations based on the Sinopec's first quarter earnings, revenue in the second quarter was 679 billion yuan.

Net income in the second quarter rose to 22.8 billion yuan from 18.8 billion yuan in first quarter, the Reuters calculations showed.

Crude oil production in the first half fell 1.6 percent from the same period a year earlier to 143.6 million barrels while natural gas output was up 5.3 percent from a year earlier to 476.2 billion cubic feet, Sinopec said.

Refined product sales in the first half were 96.48 million tonnes, down 2.1 percent from the same period a year earlier.

($1 = 6.8740 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Christian Shepherd and Meng Meng in Beijing; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)