China National Offshore Oil Company Limited (CNOOC Ltd) announced Wednesday that its unaudited total revenue in the first three months hit a record 16.66 billion yuan (US$2.08 billion), up 45.1 percent year on year.

Benefiting from the soaring price of oil on the international market, CNOOC Ltd saw its oil and gas revenue rose to 16.43 billion yuan in the first quarter, representing a year-on-year increase of 43.8 percent.

A report released by CNOOC Ltd on Wednesday said that in the first quarter the company realized an average oil price of US$58.13 per barrel or 39.3 percent more than during the same period of last year. The average realized gas price was US$3.10 per thousand cubic feet, up 6 percent year on year.

For the first quarter of 2006, crude oil production of CNOOC Ltd reached 383,519 barrels per day and gas production 390 million cubic feet per day.

CNOOC Ltd also reported an 11 percent increase of its offshore production in China, which was 415,144 barrels oil equivalent per day. In this period, strong production growth in Bohai Bay contributed a lot to total output with the net production increase of 23.4 percent for crude oil and 28.2 percent for natural gas.

CNOOC Ltd earning rose thanks to higher oil prices and stable production growth, said Yang Hua, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of the Company.

CNOOC Ltd spent 430 million yuan on exploration in the first three months, up 23.7 percent from the same period last year and made three new discoveries offshore China.

CNOOC Ltd was also active overseas acquiring a 45 percent stake in OML130 and a 35 percent interest of OPL229 Block in Nigeria.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2006)