Chinese refiners get some relief from price rise

China raised retail fuel prices in March by the most in almost three years in a move that will help refiners cut heavy losses but is unlikely to slow the country’s rapidly rising demand

China’s state-owned oil companies reported record revenues in 2011 on the back of rising global oil prices, highlighting their expanding financial firepower. Though high crude prices drove profits in the upstream, Sinopec and PetroChina lost a combined RMB97.7 billion ($15.5bn) in their domestic refining businesses because of low, state-set prices for gasoline and diesel. Beijing kept the retail fuels at artificially low prices for much of last year in a bid to cool inflation, a system that in effect forced PetroChina and Sinopec to run their refineries at a loss. PetroChina reported refining losses of RMB60.1bn, and net profit of RMB133bn last year, down 5% from the previous year. Sinopec r