Reserves, losses piling up for Sinopec

China Petrochemical Corp, or Sinopec, known as the country's biggest oil refiner, may lose 230 billion yuan in its refining business this year because government controls on oil prices prevent the company from passing on higher crude costs to consumers.

Sinopec sold its fuels including gasoline and diesel at prices lower than its costs of crude oil purchased for 283 days of this year even though global crude prices fell in recent months, Wang Xiaoqi, head of planning and development at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said at a forum hosted by Tsinghua University on Friday in Beijing.

"The company's refining operations will still suffer from a 180-billion-yuan loss even though the government granted a subsidy of 50 billion yuan," Wang said.