CNOOC revenue more than doubles in first quarter

CNOOC Ltd., the smallest of China's three major state-owned oil companies, said Wednesday its revenue in the first quarter more than doubled from a year ago, but it didn't release numbers on its net profit.

The Beijing-based company said its revenue for the three months that ended March 31 was about 30.49 billion yuan ($4.46 billion), up from 13.95 billion yuan a year ago, because of increased production and sales.

The company, along with China's other top oil producers, has benefited from the country's massive stimulus program to fight off the effects of the global financial crisis.

"In the first quarter, the company achieved strong production and revenue growth as well as encouraging exploration discoveries. I believe that such solid results will provide strong support for achieving our 2010 target," chairman Fu Chengyu said in a statement.

CNOOC, the country's main offshore oil and gas producer, has no major refining operations so it relies on oil production for the bulk of its profits. The company's profit sank 34 percent in 2009 on sharply lower oil prices.

But China's demand for oil rose 12.8 percent in March from a year earlier as the Chinese economy returned to rapid growth and refining capacity expanded, according to a report earlier this month. The analysis of official data by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., said March was the seventh straight month of double-digit increases in demand for China.

Like China's other major oil producers, CNOOC has been actively searching out assets overseas to supplement domestic production.