PetroChina Reports Sharp Jump in 1H Profit
PetroChina reported August 24 a net profit of yuan 12.67bn ($1.9bn) for the six months that ended June 30, up from yuan 531mn in the same period in 2016, due to higher oil and gas prices and reduced costs, it said.
“PetroChina grasped opportunities amid the increase of oil and gas prices as well as growing demand for natural gas, and took full advantage of the integration of the upstream and downstream businesses, strengthened the balance among production, refinery, transportation, marketing and trading segments and inventory management,” the company said.
The revenue during the six months was about yuan 976bn, up 32% year on year. The average selling price of oil was up 50% year on year to $49.7/b, while average natural gas prices rose 1% year on year, it said.
Output of domestic crude oil was recorded at 368.5mn barrels, down 4.4% year on year; marketable natural gas output was 1,608.8bn feet3, up 5.3% year on year. Oil and gas equivalent output was 636.7mn barrels, down 0.5% year on year. And, overseas oil and gas equivalent output fell to 89mn barrels, down 17.7% year on year.
In 1H of 2017, the sales volume of natural gas was recorded as 98.33bn m3, representing an increase of 14% compared with the same period in 2016.
PetroChina expects the global economy to continue to recover moderately in 2H 2017 and international oil prices to struggle at low levels.
Shardul Sharma