Shale cost may drop

State-run oil company Sinopec Corp said on Monday it expects shale drilling costs in China to drop to $50 million per well from $80 million in three to five years.

Chairman Fu Chengyu was speaking at the firm's results briefing after it reported a better-than-expected 36 percent rise in second-quarter profit as an improvement at its refining and marketing businesses more than offset a weakening chemicals division.

The country's largest oil refiner announced late on Friday that its net profits rose 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2014. Net profits during the term stood at 31.43 billion yuan ($5.1 billion), while its business revenues pared 4.2 percent year-on-year to 1.36 trillion yuan, the company said in a statement filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.