China National Offshore Oil Company Limited (CNOOC Ltd.) announced yesterday that its net oil and gas output in the third quarter of 2008 rose by 15.2 percent over the same period last year.

The state-owned offshore oil producer said that its unaudited total revenue was 30.9 billion yuan (US$4.5 billon) for the third quarter, representing a year-on-year increase of 69.1 percent.

The company's unaudited oil and gas revenue for the third quarter reached 30.5 billion yuan, up 67.9 percent from a year ago. For the first three quarters, the company's unaudited total oil and gas revenue hit 84.95 billion yuan with a year-on-year increase of 65.3 percent.

Soaring oil price in the first three quarters and rising oil and gas output contributed a lot to the revenue rise of the big oil producer.

According to CNOOC Ltd., the company achieved a total net daily oil and gas production of 549,589 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in the third quarter, including 480,857 BOE per day in offshore China and 68,732 BOE per day overseas.

The company's realized crude price for the third quarter increased by 58.7 percent to 106.94 per barrel U.S. dollars. Its realized gas price was 3.83 U.S. dollars per thousand cubic feet, a year-on-year growth of 11.7 percent.

CNOOC Ltd. said it found four new oil and gas fields in the third quarter with two new projects starting production and seven appraisal wells were made.

For the third quarter, the capital expenditure of the company rose by 44.9 percent to 10.19 billion yuan, according to the company.

CNOOC Ltd. witnessed its net profit rise by 89.3 percent to a record of 27.54 billion yuan in the first half.

CNOOC Ltd. is the major listed subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China's largest offshore oil producer.