PetroChina H1 profits down 6%

BEIJING -- Chinese oil giant PetroChina Co said Thursday that its net profits dropped 6 percent from a year earlier to 62.02 billion yuan ($9.84 billion) in the first six months.

It attributed the decrease to lower selling prices of high-cost imported natural gas, government control over domestic refined oil prices and rising costs, according to its half-year report filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The company's revenues rose 9.9 percent year-on-year to 1.05 trillion yuan in the first half, with its earnings per share at 0.34 yuan, it said.

In the period, its crude output reached 452.4 million barrels, an increase of 1.5 percent from last year, while it processed 489.7 million barrels of crude oil, up 0.3 percent.

Due to weak domestic demand and government price control, PetroChina's refining and chemicals business recorded 28.88 billion yuan in losses during the period.

In the first six months, profits of its sales business dropped 26.4 percent amid an economic slowdown, and its natural gas and pipeline business saw profits plummet 84.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the company's overseas oil and natural gas output increased 0.9 percent from a year earlier to 62.45 million barrels of oil equivalent, accounting for 9.4 percent of the company's total output.

Listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, PetroChina is a listed subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, China's largest oil and gas producer.