The China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) Ltd announced Saturday that its income from oil and natural gas in the first quarter of 2005 reached 11.42 billion yuan (US$1.38 billion), 48.1 percent higher than the same period last year.

In the first quarter, CNOOC saw a daily net output of 411,424 barrels oil, 13.4 percent more than the same period of last year.

According to the company's quarterly report, its daily oil and natural gas net output in the first quarter of 2005 in China's sea area reached 373,984 barrels oil equivalent, growing by 19 percent over the same period of last year.

With the output growth in Bohai Sea Area and South China Sea Area, CNOOC saw a daily output of crude oil and liquid petroleum of 327,755 barrels with an increase rate of 20.0 percent.

The daily output of natural gas in China's sea area reached 266million cubic feet, 7.7 percent higher than the same period last year.

In the first quarter, CNOOC saw the price of crude oil grow by 40.1 percent to US$41.73 per barrel.

As a result of the growth of net output and oil prices, CNOOC saw its total income in the first quarter of 2005 reach11.48 billion yuan (US$1.39 billion), 47.6 percent higher than the same period of last year.

In the first quarter, CNOOC made more efforts in oil and natural gas exploration with the investment rising by 65.8 percent to 2.99 billion yuan (US$361 million) and the expenditure in exploration reaching 340 million yuan (US$41.1 million), nearly the same as the corresponding period last year.

"All major projects of the company is processing smoothly," said Zhou Shouwei, President of CNOOC

According to him, in the first quarter, CNOOC has its oil field of Luda in the Bohai Bay put into operation ahead of schedule, with an output better than the expectation. It has also purchased 16.69 percent of the so far issued ordinary shares of MEG, an energy company of Canada, for 150 million Canadian dollars.

As the subsidiary of CNOOC, China's largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas, CNOOC was established in Hong Kong in 1999 with the parent company holding 70.64 percent of its shares.

(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2005)