BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) announced Wednesday that its crude oil output reached 143.88 million barrels in the first six months, up 2.12 percent from the same period of last year.

According to statistics before auditing released by Sinopec, it produced 139.55 billion cubic feet of natural gas, up 10.58 percent year on year.

Sinopec processed 76.25 million tons of crude in the first six months, a year-on-year increase of 6.38 percent.

Sinopec's output of gasoline rose by 8.28 percent, diesel, up 2.12 percent, kerosene, up 28.93 percent and light chemical feedstock, up 5.41 percent in the first six months.

In the chemical sector, Sinopec's output of ethylene, syntheticresins and synthetic rubbers rose by 7.98 percent, 13.93 percent and 13.21 percent respectively from the same period of last year.

However, the output of synthetic fibers dropped by 6.75 percent and urea down 10.26 percent.

Sinopec's total domestic sales volume of refined oil products rose by 6.63 percent year on year to 57.92 million tons in the first half year of 2007.

Listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai, Sinopec is the largest oil refiner of China.