China's petroleum and chemical industries have witnessed improvement in overall operation this year, with profit projected at 28 billion yuan (3.38 billion US dollars)by year-end.

The figure is 12 billion yuan (1.45 billion dollars) more than that of 1998 and eight billion yuan (960 million dollars) more than the initial plan, said a high-ranking industry official at an ongoing working conference of the petrochemical industry on December 17.

According to Li Yongwu, director of the State Administration of Petroleum and Chemical Industries under the State Economic and Trade Commission, in the first ten months this year, China's petrochemical industry had rolled in 446.69 billion yuan (53.95 billion dollars) in terms of industrial output value, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier.

The figure for the whole is predicted at 547.13 billion yuan (66 billion dollars), 10.5 percent higher than a year earlier and 5. 5 percent higher than it was planned early this year, Li said.

He said that the whole sector made a profit of 23.52 billion yuan (2.84 billion dollars) in the ten-month period. Of the total, the China National Petroleum Corp. accounted for 10.29 billion yuan (1.24 billion dollars); the China Petrochemical Corp. contributed 5.95 billion yuan (719 million dollars); chemical companies took in 2.33 billion yuan (281 million dollars); and the China National Offshore Oil Corp., made 2.32 billion yuan (280 million dollars).

Li told the conference that China this year has effectively controlled the distribution of crude and refined oil products markets, which helped to stabilize the market supply and got better economic results.

In addition, he said, China has also made headway in shutting down poorly-performing small refineries, further curbing the excessive refining capacity.

Statistics show that 5,592 illegal refineries have been bulldozed and 56 small refineries, each of which has an annual processing capacity of less than one million tons, have been closed down. (Xinhua)