China Refiners to Cast Abroad as Price Curbs Hit Profit: Energy

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia’s largest refiner, and rival PetroChina Co. are poised to seek assets overseas to diversify as domestic earnings are depressed by state-controlled prices for processed fuels.

Refining losses resulted in China Petroleum, known as Sinopec, reporting a 41 percent decline in first-half net income to 24.5 billion yuan ($3.9 billion) yesterday. PetroChina, the nation’s biggest oil and gas producer, last week said first-half profit declined 6 percent to 62 billion yuan.