Daqing, China's largest oilfield, said that its international business had surpassed 2 billion yuan (278.2 million U.S. dollars) for the first time in 2007.

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), parent company of Daqing and the country's largest oil producer, released the figure on Thursday but did not give comparative information for 2006.

The average profit margin for Daqing's overseas projects was 12.65 percent in 2007, a record, said the CNPC on its website.

The field also netted 18.007 billion yuan from revenues apart from oil exploration and production in 2007, mainly drilling services. This figure accounted for 35.14 percent of total revenues.

As the industry became increasingly competitive, Daqing would not be able to rely solely on internal business but would have to expand its outside operations, the information office told Xinhua on Thursday.

The field produced 41.7 million tons of oil in 2007, slightly above the target of 41.62 million tons.

The field has been in operation for 47 years and its output peaked in 1975 at more than 50 million tons. Daqing is also the largest engineering and technology enterprise under the CNPC.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2008)