CNOOC Ltd, China’s dominant offshore oil producer, yesterday reported third-quarter sales gained 16 percent from a year earlier on higher production and crude prices.

Oil and gas sales, making up almost all CNOOC’s income, rose to 56.1 billion yuan (US$9.2 billion) in the quarter, from 48.4 billion yuan a year earlier, it said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Net oil and gas production climbed 18 percent to 103.4 million barrels of oil equivalent in the third quarter, following the purchase of Canadian rival Nexen Inc earlier this year.

Neil Beveridge, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said production growth will accelerate in the fourth quarter and beyond as five major projects start up.

“CNOOC is ahead of plan for the year, and we remain confident that CNOOC will deliver at the upper end of guidance for 2013 (338-348 million barrels),” he wrote in a note.

CNOOC’s capital expenditure jumped 49 percent to 22.4 billion yuan in the quarter due to more development projects and the consolidation of Nexen. Without Nexen, CNOOC’s standalone capital expenditure rose 18 percent to 17.7 billion yuan year on year.

Earlier this week, a multinational consortium in which CNOOC takes a 10 percent stake won a 35-year production sharing deal to develop the giant Libra oil field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.