CNOOC Ltd, China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer, said third-quarter sales fell, reflecting flat crude output and a decline in the value of the US dollar.

Sales fell 1.8 percent to 18.3 billion yuan, CNOOC said yesterday. Oil output rose 0.3 percent from a year earlier to 373,287 barrels a day. Oil and gas production climbed 3.8 percent to the equivalent of 476,937 barrels of oil a day in the three months ended September.

CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu plans to boost output from fields off China's coast to meet the nation's rising energy demand. The oil producer intends to more than double the size of the Bohai Bay field, making it China's second biggest, in the next five to six years.