PetroChina posts record interim profit, but fuel sales decline
China's largest oil and gas company PetroChina's first-half net income hit a new high, up 3.9% compared with a year ago, the company said on Monday, as higher oil and gas prices outweighed the impact of reduced refining profits.
Net income was 88.61 B yuan ($12.44 B) and total revenue was up 5% at 1.554 T yuan during the period, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
China's leading refiner Sinopec earlier posted a 2.6% rise in net interim profit of $5.2 B, bolstered by record oil and gas output although sluggish fuel and petrochemicals demand dragged.
Chinese demand for transportation fuel diesel has slumped because of a prolonged property crisis and the substitution of cheaper natural gas as truck fuel, while growth in gasoline use has been capped by the rise of new-energy vehicles.
PetroChina, China's second-largest refiner, posted a 3% growth in crude throughput for the first half at 693.3 MMbbl, or 3.81 MMbpd. The growth eased from first quarter's 8.2%, suggesting a weaker second quarter.
Its total sales volume of gasoline, kerosene and diesel for the period dropped 2% at 79.05 MMt, with diesel leading the fall, down 5.6%, and gasoline fell 2.7%.
Sales of aviation fuel expanded 16.4%, however, following recovery in outbound travel and the group's natural gas sales grew 12.9% on the year to 147.2 Bm3.
Domestic natural gas output rose 2.9% at 2,486.8 Bft3, while overseas production gained 2.5% at 97.4 Bft3.
PetroChina's total crude oil output rose 0.1% on the year to 474.8 MMbbl, or 2.61 MMbpd.
Its domestic output grew 0.1% to 392.8 MMbbl and production outside China was unchanged at 82 MMbbl.
The results were published after the market close.
PetroChina's Hong Kong listed shares closed up 1.6% on Monday and have grown 33% so far this year, outperforming the Hang Seng index .HSI which has risen 4.4%.
(metric ton = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)
($1 = 7.1209 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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