China's CNOOC parent profit up 35 pct in H1

BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - Chinese oil firm CNOOC said its first-half net profit climbed 35 percent, as the company's focus on crude production protected it from the state-set retail fuel prices that ate into refinery earnings of rivals.

CNOOC, parent of listed CNOOC Ltd. (0883.HK), made a net profit of 18.95 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) on earnings of 106.33 billion yuan, the company said in a statement on its Web site (www.cnooc.com.cn).

The smallest of China's state-owned oil majors, it has also been the most successful in recent years because it is not exposed to the country's loss-making refining sector.

The wide gap between domestic state-set fuel prices and climbing global crude markets has caused massive losses at the downstream departments of rivals CNPC (PTR.N)(0857.HK) and Sinopec (SNP.N)(0386.HK).

But an international commodities boom has still eaten into CNOOC's bottom line.

"At the same time that the high level of international crude prices has brought in income for the upstream industry, it has also caused our costs to rise rapidly," the statement said.

In the first half, costs rose by over 50 percent, it added -- and the company will soon be more vulnerable.

Its first refinery is expected to open late this autumn, with a two-month delay after heavy rains slowed construction, company sources said on Monday. The 240,000 barrels-per-day plant will be finished in November, versus an original target of September.

"Earlier it was the ice storm that delayed delivery of some equipment. Then in June heavy rainfall in Guangdong almost brought construction work to a complete halt," said one official familiar with the plant in southern Chinese city of Huizhou. (Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Paul Bolding)