China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation SNP, also known as Sinopec, has gained 5.1% since it reported year-over-year higher first-quarter 2022 results on Apr 27, before the opening bell.

Sinopec reported first-quarter earnings per share of RMB 0.193, higher than RMB 0.155 in a year-ago quarter. Moreover, revenues increased to RMB 771,386 million from RMB 576,559 million in a year-ago quarter.

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The year-over-year higher quarterly results were led by a rise in oil and natural gas production and commodity prices. Improved domestic demand for refined oil products and chemical products also led to the rise.

Operational Performance

Exploration and Production: In the March quarter of 2022, Sinopec’s total crude oil production increased 1% year over year to 69.07 million barrels. Oil production in the domestic market increased 0.6% to 61.60 million barrels and overseas volume jumped 4% to 7.47 million barrels.

Natural gas volume of Sinopec increased 7.7% year over year to 313.94 billion cubic feet in the first quarter. Also, total oil and gas production rose 3.7% to 121.41 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Sinopec’s operating profit – earnings before interest and taxes – at this segment in the March quarter was recorded at RMB 11.5 billion, reflecting a 273.1% surge year over year on higher oil and gas production and realized prices.

Refining: Sinopec’s Refining business recorded refinery throughput of 64.19 million tons (up 2.7% year over year). It also produced 37.36 million tons of petroleum products, reflecting a 4.7% improvement.

Segmental operating profit was recorded at RMB 22.9 billion, reflecting an increment of 15.2% year over year, thanks to higher refinery throughput.

Marketing and Distribution: The Marketing and Distribution segment sold 51.02 million tons of refined oil products, depicting a 1.8% year-over-year decline. Of the total figure, domestic sales volume came in at 41.06 million tons, up 2.6%.

Annualized average throughput was recorded at 3,559 tons per station in the quarter, up from 3,536 tons in the year-ago quarter.

Operating profit at the segment grossed RMB 8.9 billion, depicting an improvement of 5.2% year over year, thanks to higher average throughput per station.

Chemicals: During the first quarter of 2022, the production of ethylene increased 6.7% year over year to 3,606 thousand tons from 3,380 thousand tons. Moreover, the production of Synthetic resin was 4,867 thousand tons compared with 4,787 thousand tons in the year-ago quarter.