By Sam Li and Chen Aizhu
(Reuters) -Asia’s largest oil and gas producer PetroChina Co Ltd reported on Thursday a 3.9% year-on-year decline in third-quarter net profit due to lower oil prices as it maintained steady crude production and expanded natural gas output.
Net profit fell to 42.29 billion yuan ($5.94 billion), the company said in a stock filing, while revenue rose 2.3% to 719.16 billion yuan.
Domestic peer offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd reported on Thursday a 12% fall in quarterly earnings, while refining giant Sinopec Corp posted on Wednesday flat net income for the same period.
In the first nine months of this year, PetroChina produced 714.3 million barrels of oil, 0.8% higher year-on-year, including 591.3 million barrels, or 82.8%, produced domestically.
Natural gas output expanded 4.6% year-on-year to 3,977.2 billion cubic feet during the nine months, 97% of which was produced in China.
Crude oil processing at PetroChina, which is also China’s second-largest refiner after Sinopec, was up 0.4% at 1,040.6 million barrels, or 3.81 million barrels per day during the nine-month period.
Sales of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel rose 0.8% year-on-year to 120.9 million metric tons, reversing a 4.6% fall in the same period in 2024. Of that, domestic sales stood flat at 89.64 million tons.
Aviation fuel expanded 13.2% and diesel was up 0.3%. Gasoline sales, however, fell 2.6% owing to competition from electric vehicles.
The company said it continued to strengthen exploration and development with a focus on increasing reserves and production, while pushing ahead with upgrading its refining and chemicals business.
In renewables, it generated 5.79 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from wind and solar in the January-September period, up 72% year on year.
Its natural gas sales in the first three quarters rose 4.2% to 218.5 billion cubic meters (bcm), including 171 bcm sold domestically.
The nine-month capital spending totalled 177.2 billion yuan, versus 180.2 billion yuan a year earlier.
PetroChina’s Hong Kong-listed shares have risen 30.4% year-to-date, slightly lagging a 31% rise in the Hang Seng index.
($1 = 7.1230 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Sam Li and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Susan Fenton)
