The China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., Asia's largest oil refiner, said Sunday its net profits in 2010 rose 13.7 percent year on year, according to international accounting standards.

Net profits of Sinopec, as the company is known, hit 71.8 billion yuan (10.9 billion U.S. dollars). Earnings per share stood at 0.828 yuan, compared with 0.728 yuan one year earlier, the refiner said in a statement filed to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

The Beijing-based firm attributed its profit gains to soaring crude oil prices, solid production growth and rising crude demand driven by fast domestic economic growth.

Its crude oil production volume last year rose 0.1 percent year on year to 327.85 million barrels, while its natural gas output increased 47.6 percent to 441.39 billion cubic feet.

Further, the company refined 211 million tonnes of crude oil, up 13.2 percent from one year ago, and produced 124 million tonnes of refined oil products, up 9.4 percent.

The average price for the crude oil produced by Sinopec rose 45.4 percent year on year to 3,349 yuan per tonne last year. The company expects oil prices to continue to rise this year, due to the solid domestic demand for oil products, natural gas and chemical products.

Sinopec, a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corp., is listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai.