China oil refiner Sinopec's net profit down 47.8 pct

"Falling oil prices really put those companies under tremendous pressure", Neil Beveridge, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said by phone from Hong Kong.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the third-largest company of its kind in China, said Wednesday its revenue for the third quarter was down 32 percent, but production increased by 24 percent.

Sales and administration costs fell 4.8 per cent year on year to 75.7 billion yuan in the nine months.

The company's realized crude price fell 49 percent to $51.16 a barrel in the first nine months, according to the statement, while oil and gas output rose 3.6 percent to 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The refining and chemicals business posted an operating profit of 3.0 billion yuan, compared with a loss in the same period a year ago of 8.8 billion yuan. The company plans to cut back operations at its refineries by around 5 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the first half of the year as fuel inventories rise and demand for diesel slows, industry sources told Reuters. Net profit for the year's first nine months plunged 80.9 per cent to 1.25 billion yuan. Net profit for July-September declined 81.4 per cent to 5.2 billion yuan ($818.23 million) from 27.9 billion yuan a year earlier.

"We believe there are signs that the oil market is close to bottoming and may rebalance in the coming 12 months", said BNP Paribas head of Asia energy research Por Yong-liang in a report.