China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the country's No. 3 oil producer, announced pretax profits jumped 24 percent to 48.1 billion yuan (6.2 billion U.S. dollars) last year.

In 2005 the oil giant reported 60.1 percent increase in pretax profits, totaling 38.8 billion yuan (5.0 billion U.S. dollars). Analysts said fall oil prices in the second half of last year had greatly affected the company's profit growth.

Its sales revenue surged 36 percent year-on-year to 120.8 billion yuan (15.6 billion U.S. dollars), according to a statement posted on the company's Website.

The statement said the company's total assets climbed 29 percent year-on-year to 247.4 billion yuan (31.9 billion U.S. dollars) last year.

The company earlier lowered its annual output target for 2007 due to the suspension of operations at the Liuhua oil field in South China Sea, which turned out 22,000 barrels of oil per day before being struck by Typhoon Pearl last May.

It said it aimed to produce 162 to 170 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2007. The target for last year was 168 to 170 million barrels.

It said the company would earmark 382 million U.S. dollars, or 75 percent of its total exploration expenditure in 2007, for projects in Chinese coastal areas.

The company said it would put five projects into operation this year, with a total of more than 20 projects to start production over the next few years which will help raise output to 190 million barrels in 2008.

Source: Xinhua