The Beijing-based company processed 155.6 million tons of crude in 2007, about 3.13 million barrels a day, Sinopec said in a statement on its website yesterday.

The company's crude oil output rose 2.3 percent to 291.7 million barrels last year. Its natural gas production increased 10.3 percent to 283 billion cubic feet, the statement said.

The government in November ordered the country's refiners to run their plants at full capacity to increase supplies. The country's two leading oil companies PetroChina and Sinopec have been urged to boost fuel imports to improve supply.

Sinopec imported over 400,000 tons of diesel in December and around 300,000 tons in November. China's diesel imports in December increased more than fourfold from a year earlier.

But faced with a high crude oil price and government controls on refined oil product prices, analysts said Sinopec's oil refining business would see several billion yuan in losses for the fourth quarter of 2007.

"We predict the company's refining business will see a loss of 8 billion yuan for 2007," said Liu Gu, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen.

Sinopec's net profit in the first half of 2007 rose 65.3 percent to 34.9 billion yuan. The company set a new record in both oil and gas production, with 144 million barrels of crude oil and 140 billion cubic feet of natural gas produced.

Sinopec processed 76.25 million tons of crude oil in the first six months, an increase of 6.38 percent.

China's crude oil production may increase 1.5 percent for last year, according to the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association. Oil output may climb to 186 million tons for 2007, and increase to 189 million tons this year.

China's natural gas output may rise 14 percent to 58.55 billion cu m in 2007 and increase to 76 billion cu m in 2008. The nation's gas production will be 90 billion cu m in 2010, the association said.