The pre-tax profit of China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) reached 32.43 billion yuan (US$4 billion) in the first eight months of the year, a rise of 29.4 percent year on year.

 

A CNOOC official said on Monday that, while the figures looked healthy, pre-tax profit growth had in fact slowed dramatically in the last two months.

 

The company's sales increased by 43 percent year on year to 77.79 billion yuan in the first eight months.

 

In a mid-year report, CNOOC said its net profits jumped 37.6 percent from a year earlier to 16.28 billion yuan.

 

CNOOC is China's largest offshore oil and gas producer and one of the country's three major state-owned oil companies. The other two are PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec).

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2006)