Crude oil throughput and oil product output by China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) increased 2.7% from a year earlier in 2011, Asia's largest refiner said.

The parent of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec Corp) did not give outright volumes in the report published on one of its websites (www.sinopecnews.com.cn).

Last year's natural gas output surged 16.8% from a year earlier, but crude oil production gained a meagre 0.4%, Wang Tianpu, general manager of the largest Chinese oil company by sales, was quoted as saying at an annual conference.

The group found 29% more proven oil deposits than a year earlier and 81.4% more gas reserves in 2011.

Sinopec Group earlier said it processed 4.24 million barrels per day of crude oil in 2010. It produced 851,200 bpd of crude oil and 12.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in its domestic fields in 2010.

Ethylene production increased 9.1% from a year earlier to more than 10 million tonnes in 2011, the group said.

Sinopec Group aims to more than double equity oil output from overseas projects to more than 1 million bpd by 2015 from the 457,600 bpd 2011.