China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (0386.HK), known as Sinopec, ON Monday reported a 31% rise of its January-September net profit amid higher revenues and stringent cost control. The state-owned oil refiner said its net profit for the nine months ended September rose to 39.40 billion yuan (US$5.92 billion) from CNY30.11 billion a year earlier, according to the international financial reporting standards. Sinopec said combined oil-and-gas production for January-September rose 3.2% from a year earlier to 332.63 million barrels of oil equivalent. In its core refining business, throughput rose 1.3% on the year to 177.46 million metric tons. For the three months ended September, Sinopec's net profit rose 13% to CNY11.49 billion from CNY10.19 billion a year earlier.