Sinopec Group 1st Half 2012 Overseas Oil, Gas Output Up 24.02% on Year

China Petrochemical Corp., known as Sinopec Group, said Tuesday that its overseas equity oil-and-gas output owned by subsidiary Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corp. rose by 2.52 million tons of oil equivalent in the first half of 2012, up 24.02% from a year earlier.

This would translate into about 13.03 million TOE of total equity oil-and-gas output in the first half of 2012, up from 10.5 million TOE in the first half of 2011, Dow Jones Newswires' calculations show.

Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corp. holds most of Sinopec Group's overseas assets, including a recent 33% investment in five shale blocks owned by U.S.-based Devon Energy Corp. (DVN), the 100% acquisition of Canada's Daylight Energy Ltd. and a 40% stake in Repsol S.A.'s (REP.MC) Brazilian assets.

In the first half of 2012, Sinopec's subsidiary had already achieved 71.3% of its annual overseas target for recoverable reserves of crude oil, its parent company said in a statement on its website, citing a speech by Deputy Manager Zhang Yaocang.

Mr. Zhang said that Sinopec's subsidiary had already achieved 150% of its annual overseas target for 2C resources of natural gas in the first half, without elaborating. 2C refers to the medium estimate of contingent resources, or resources that are potentially recoverable from known discoveries but not yet considered mature enough for commercial development.

Sinopec Group has said it plans to more than double its equity oil-and-gas output from overseas projects to more than 50 million TOE a year by 2015 from 22.88 million TOE in 2011.