BEIJING, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- China Petrochemical says its foreign engineering contracts in the first seven months of 2008 jumped 193 percent to $1.698 billion from last year.

Zhang Yaocang, vice general manager of Asia's largest oil refiner, said the value of China Petrochemical's overseas engineering contracts has risen from $180 million in 2003 to $1.93 billion for all of last year, Xinhua reported. China Petrochemical is also known as Sinopec.

Profits from all contracts last year totaled $460 million, the company said.

A spokesman for Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corp, said the company's engineering teams have completed 236 contracts, or 72.8 percent of the signed total, in 30 countries in the first half of 2008. He said Sinopec's engineering business was growing steadily in Africa, the Middle East, South and Central America.

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