Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Sinopec 2019 annual results announcement. Please allow me to introduce our senior executives today. They are President of Sinopec Group, President of Sinopec Corp., Mr. Ma Yongsheng. CFO, Mr. Wang Dehua. Today's presentation covers two parts. First, Mr. Ma will highlight first half performance overview. Mr. Wang will elaborate on each segment's performance and second half operational plan. Finally, we will have a Q&A session. Now, I will give the floor to Mr. Ma to present the highlights in the first half.
Ladies and gentlemen. Now, I will brief you our performance for the first half in 2019. In the first half, global economy recorded slow recovery, while China's economy maintained a steady momentum, securing progress with the GDP grew by 6.3%. International oil prices fluctuated with an upward trend first, then declined quickly.
The average spot price of Platts Dated Brent for the first half slid by 6.6% year-on-year. Driven by economic growth, domestic energy and petrochemicals demand kept growing. Among which, natural gas demand was up by 10.8%. Oil products consumption went up. Growth in chemicals demand was rapid as well. This is the fundamentals of the market in the first half. Faced with tough external market, the company actively addressed the market changes by leveraging integrated strength and achieved a stable progress. We focused on management optimization, market expansion, cost reduction, risk control, and seeking growth. E&P kept stabilizing oil production, increasing gas output, and reducing costs, greatly improving profit. Integrated strength was further displayed in refining and marketing segments, effectively addressing market competition. Chemicals continued to cut costs and increase market share. The company in general delivered solid operating results.
Turnover and other operating revenues reached CNY 1.5 trillion, up by 15.3%. EBIT, CNY 55.2 billion, among which, the second quarter recorded CNY 28.1 billion, up 3.6% over the first quarter. Profit attributable to shareholders was CNY 32.2 billion. EPS was CNY 0.266. Gearing ratio remained low in the first half at 52.5%. If excluding the effect of the newly standards, the ratio was 46.8%, almost flat with year end of 2018. As of June 30, equity attributable to shareholders of the company was CNY 723.5 billion, up by 1% against year beginning. In the first half, net cash generated from operating activities went down to CNY 32.9 billion, mainly due to decreasing net profit of the company and the growing taxation payment for the previous year. The two factors play the most vital role. Cash used in investing activities, CNY 49.1 billion.
Net cash used in financing activities, CNY 2.9 billion. Cash and cash equivalent, CNY 163.1 billion. Abundant for future strategic development. We aim to deliver good return, share growth with our shareholders. In accordance with the company's articles of association, considering our operations, future growth, and return to shareholders, the board declared an interim dividend of CNY 0.12 per share, with an estimated total payout of CNY 14.5 billion. Annualized H-share dividend yield in the first half was 4.8%. We strengthened cost control and made a remarkable achievement, enhanced our competitiveness through improving efficiency. Our achievements are made in the following aspects. In E&P, we promoted effective exploration and profitable production. Lifting cost dropped by 2.6% year-on-year. In refining, while proceeding with structural adjustment, we further optimized the product mix and lowered cash operating cost by 7.4%.
Faced with the fierce competition, domestic oil product sales volume and retail scale saw stable growth, and the marketing business cut cash operating cost by 13.1%. In chemical segment, we optimized the feedstock mix, product slate, and operation. Unit all-in cost was down by 2.6%. These are the progress we made in cost reduction. For CapEx, we focused more on quality, efficiency, and investment return, and optimized capital projects. CapEx for the first half totaled CNY 42.9 billion, up by 81%. CapEx for E&P were CNY 20.1 billion, mainly for oil capacity building in Shengli and Northwest oil fields, shale gas capacity building in Fuling and Weirong, natural gas transmission and storage projects. CapEx for refining were CNY 8.8 billion, mainly from Zhongke Integrated Refining and Chemical Project, product mix optimization of Zhenhai and Maoming, as well as the crude pipeline of Rizhao to Puyang to Luoyang.
CapEx for marketing and distribution were CNY 8.1 billion, mainly for constructing oil product depots, pipelines, and service stations. CapEx for chemicals were CNY 5.7 billion, mainly for Zhongke, Zhenhai, Wuhan Ethylene expansion projects, et cetera. CapEx for corporate and others were CNY 300 million, mainly for R&D facilities and IT application. The company constantly improved the HSSE system and implemented the concept of comprehensive health by integrating the management of occupational, physical, and mental health of our employees. Stringent rules were set to manage and control major safety risks, all contributing to the stable and safe production performance for the company. We upgraded our capacity in all-dimension risk prevention and control as well as emergency response, further enhancing security management. We actively practiced green and low-carbon growth strategy and further promoted the green enterprise campaign and the energy efficiency upgrading plan.
The above are the highlights of the first half operation of the company. Now, CFO of the company, Mr. Wang Dehua, will present our results by segment. Thank you.
As for E&P in the first half, we fully implemented the action plan to enhance oil and gas E&P to maintain oil production, increase gas output and cut cost.
While pushing forward an integrated value chain of natural gas business. In exploration, we continue to enhance high-quality exploration and reinforce preliminary exploration in new areas, as well as integrating evaluation for key projects to increase reserves, leading to new discoveries in Jiyang Depression, Sichuan Basin, and Ordos Basin, et cetera. Through our efforts, despite the declined international oil price, our domestic reserve of crude oil and natural gas both increased against the end of last year. In development, we enhanced profit-oriented production, strengthened the capacity building of profitable oil production, maintained growth in domestic crude production, and promoted rapid growth of natural gas. Capacity building in Fuling, Weirong, Dongsheng, and West Sichuan gas fields sped up. Production and sales of gas were optimized to promote a coordinated growth along the value chain. Natural gas production was up by 7%, and sales volume up by 31.6%.
The realized price of crude oil was $60.1 per barrel, down by 5.1%, and value of natural gas was CNY 1.4 per cubic meter, up by 4.1%. We made remarkable progress in controlling costs and fees. Lifting cost was $16.1 per barrel, down by 2.6%, and unit oil cost continued to decline. In the first half, upstream EBIT reached CNY 7.98 billion, a dramatic increase. As for refining, we focused on market demand, fully leveraged our advantage of integration, and continued to optimize product mix. Gasoline production grew by 4.3%, kerosene up by 7.9%, and diesel to gasoline ratio dropped to 1.03. We increased oil product exports, expanded the jet fuel market, and maintained high utilization rate. We upgraded quality for new spec bunker fuel and kept improving operations. New and structural adjustment projects rolled out. In the first half, refining output was 124 million tons, up by 2.7%.
In the first half, affected by multiple factors, crude procurement costs grew up and gross margin of downstream products narrowed. We enhanced optimization of facilities and strengthened cost control, with unit cash operating cost down by 7.4%. The refining margin was $7.68 per barrel, and refining EBIT CNY 18.6 billion. As for oil product sales, we leveraged strength of integrated production sales network, actively responded to the oversupply and fierce competition in domestic market, coordinated internal and external resources, achieved sustainable growth in both total domestic sales and retail. We adopted a flexible and targeted marketing strategy, optimized the layout of pipelines and gas stations, and further consolidated our strength in the marketing network. We explored overseas market and expanded the international trade. Total sales volume of oil products grew by 9.6%, of which domestic was up by 3.8%, and overseas trading volume up by 37%.
In the first half, we balanced volume and profit, deepened internal reform, and innovated business model. While making adjustments based on the newly standards, we greatly cut cost and fees and brought down unit cash operating cost by 13.1%. Despite the fierce market competition, our operations were stable. Oil product sales EBIT CNY 16.4 billion. In addition, we strengthened nurturing self-owned brands and supply chain management and sped up the development of non-fuel business, whose profit grew by 12%. As for chemicals, in the first half, we adhered to the basic plus high-end path and sharpened market competitiveness through effective supply. We improved chemical feedstock mix to further lower costs and optimized product slate by raising the share of high-end products. With new and specialty products of synthetic resin accounting for 64.6%, we optimized facilities operation and value capture and improved the utilization and production plan based on market demand.
We promoted a number of key projects and fastened advanced capacity building. In the first half, ethylene production 6.16 million tons, up by 6.5%. We enhanced integration among production, marketing, R&D and application, promoted targeted marketing and services, and further expanded the market to prop up profitability along the value chain. Total chemical sales amounted to 48.69 million tons, up by 14.4%. In the first half, the unit cost of chemicals down by 2.6%. Chemicals EBIT was CNY 13.8 billion, maintaining good profitability. Now, I will brief you our operational plan for the second half. In the second half, we will continue to deepen corporate reform, optimize management, stress our innovation and growth, and promote high-quality development. We will undertake the following work.
We will promote effective E&P, increase reserve and oil recovery through innovation in technologies, step up profitable capacity building, and advance the production supply storage marketing system to develop gas business. For refining with integrated strength, we will drive for high efficiency operation and value creation, speed up advanced capacity building, and fasten differentiated development of refineries to improve its competitiveness. We will optimize the production plan for low sulfur bunker fuel and reduce costs. For marketing and distribution, we will increase sales volume and retails through targeted marketing. We will explore and expand the e-vehicle charging, battery swapping business, and building hydrogen refueling stations. We will improve the new business model of Internet service station Easy Joy comprehensive service to further develop non-fuel business. For chemicals, we will further adjust feedstock, product, and facility structures to improve competitiveness and deliver greater profit.
We will scale up capacity building to upgrade our business. Meanwhile, we will promote precision marketing, integrate online and offline resources, and keep increasing our market penetration. In the second half, the company will carry on with specialized development, market-oriented operation, optimized global presence, and integrated planning to enhance high-quality development and deliver superior results. Thank you.