1Q oil production up

The oil-bearing fields in west China and efforts to tap into offshore resources helped China's first quarter oil production rise 5% from a year ago to 3.67m barrels per day, or 180,000 barrels more per day than the same period of last year, state media reported. Shan Weiguo, research director at the country's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp, called this growth "rare," saying production gains had been limited to a few tens of thousands of barrels a year in the last decade. Oil production between January and March rose to 44.7m barrels, according to the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.