China Petrochemical Corporation, the country's major petrochemical giant, said Tuesday it has been given 10 billion yuan (about 1.23 billion US dollars) in one-off subsidies for compensation for artificially lower refined oil prices.

The corporation made the announcement through its listed firm SINOPEC, Tuesday on the websites of the country's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

Despite soaring international crude oil prices this year, China did not raise its refined oil prices in tandem with fluctuations of the international oil prices, making its oil refineries in red.

The corporation said that 9.415 billion yuan of the 10 billion yuan subsidies will go to SINOPEC, which controls a number of petrochemical firms in China, including three domestically listed firms.

The subsidies will be divided in accordance with the amount of crude oil processed by its subsidiaries in 2005, and the subsidies will be calculated as part of their profits.

Source: Xinhua