Refining Losses For China's Top Two Oil Cos Rise To $850 Million Jan-June 2008 - Up 47.9%

Refining losses for China's top two oil companies widened 47.9 percent to $850 million in the first half due to government controls that limit their ability to pass on high crude costs to consumers, an industry association said Tuesday.

"They are facing big difficulties," said Feng Shiliang, deputy secretary-general of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, quoted by the China Daily newspaper.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, Asia's biggest refiner by volume, warned last week that its first-half profits would fall by more than half. China's biggest oil company by revenue, China National Petroleum Corp., has given no profit forecast but has said earlier that its results were hurt by price controls.

The 5.7 billion yuan losses come just weeks before both companies report first-half results.

Beijing has kept state-set retail gasoline and diesel prices low to shield the poor, but oil refiners must still pay international market prices for crude and complain they are suffering heavy losses. Even though the government raised prices in June to curb surging growth in consumption, analysts say refiners still lose money on every barrel of crude they process.

EDIT

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/07/22/ap5239029.html

in cash reserves, that the oil companies are getting significant reimbursement from the government. I seriously doubt they are really losing any money at all.

by our huge trade deficit. They can continue to have cheap gas until we cease to exist.