China Oil Producer Sees Profits Soar

China's top offshore oil and gas producer, CNOOC, has posted a 38 percent jump in earnings for the first half of the year. The better-than-expected results were driven by soaring energy prices and higher output, according to a report on www.voanews.com. Oil and gas production at the state-owned company increased by more than seven percent in the first six months of 2006 compared to a year earlier. CNOOC's chairman Fu Chengyu says the company achieved breakthroughs in its overseas business development. Fu says CNOOC completed the acquisition of a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian oil block and also extended its exploration activities to Equatorial Guinea, Australia and Kenya. China's second-largest lender, the Bank of China, also posted positive interim results. Higher lending in the booming Chinese economy was the main driver behind the bank's 28 percent rise in first-half earnings. (Source: www.voanews.com)