The pre-tax profit of Shanghai Petrochemical, an oil refiner under Sinopec, plummeted 97.6 percent to 52.7 million yuan (6.6 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year due to rising crude oil prices.

For the six months ending on June 30, per-share earnings of Shanghai Petrochemical dropped to 0.001 yuan (0.00012 dollar) compared to 0.245 yuan (0.03 dollar) in the same period last year, said the company in its interim report released in Hong Kong Thursday.

"Due to unfavorable factors such as rising international crude oil prices, surging prices of raw materials and fuels in China..., the company's performance dropped substantially," said Rong Guangdao, chairman of the company, in launching the report.

In the first half year, the company realized net sales of 23.1 billion yuan (2.9 billion dollars), up 7.51 percent year-on-year, with its operating turnover rising 7.1 percent to 23.4 billion yuan (2.94 billion dollars).

During the period, the company processed 4.4 million tons of crude oil and produced 400,600 tons of gasoline, 1.3 million tons of diesel and 252,600 tons of jet fuel, said the report.

Source: Xinhua