Top Japanese refiner Nippon Oil has booked a 19.1 per cent gain in nine-month net profit and raised its annual outlook for a third time this year as surges in crude oil prices boosted the value of its oil inventories.

Nippon Oil, which controls one-fifth of Japan's fuel oil market, posted 121.33 billion yen ($1.02 billion) in net profit for the April-December period, helped also by the weak yen. That compared with 101.89 billion yen net profit a year earlier.
It raised its net profit forecast for the year to March 2006 to 153 billion yen from its November forecast of 121 billion yen.
Thirteen analysts surveyed by Reuters Knowledge forecast a full-year net profit of 127.74 billion yen. However, some analysts have said higher crude oil prices and the weak yen could push up profit up to 150 billion yen.