Output of China's top oil producer rises

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country's biggest oil and gas producer, said that its crude oil output from domestic blocks reached a record high of 110.33 million tones in 2012, up 2.79 million tones from one year ago. CNPC said production from the Daqing oil field in northeastern China reached 40 million tones in 2012. Output from the Changqing oil field in northwest China's Shaanxi Province hit 22.62 million tones, up 2.6 million tones from 2011, according to the official (Xinhua) news agency. Production from oil fields in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region rose to 18.39 million tones last year, according to CNPC. Meanwhile, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., the country's biggest oil refiner, announced that its crude oil output jumped by 455,000 tones and gas production increased by 2.3 billion cubic meters in 2012. The company said its oil and gas sales exceeded 200 billion yuan (31.75 billion US dollars) for the first time in the year. In 2011, China produced 203.6 million tones of crude oil and consumed 461.8 million tones.