Sinopec H1 Profit Slips 22 pct

China's Sinopec Corp , Asia's largest refiner, posted a 22 percent fall in first-half profit on a sharp decline in international crude prices that hit upstream earnings.

The state-controlled company's net profit was 25.4 billion yuan ($3.96 billion), compared to 32.5 billion yuan a year earlier, it said in a filing with the Hong Kong bourse.

Sinopec said last month that it expected an 11-fold jump in quarterly net profit in the second quarter compared to the first.

The company plans to cut back operations at its refineries by around 5 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the first half of the year as fuel inventories rise and demand for diesel slows, industry sources told Reuters.

In the first half, crude oil production fell 2.1 pct on year to 174.1 million barrels, Sinopec said in the filing.

Sinopec reported a worse than expected fourth-quarter net loss of 5.3 billion yuan in 2014 -- its first quarterly loss since becoming a public company in 2000. ($1 = 6.4095 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting By Adam Rose