Reforms lift PetroChina Q3 profit

PetroChina Co Ltd's crude oil output rose 2.2 percent to 698 million barrels in the first nine months of the year, the listed company said on Tuesday in its third-quarter report. [Photo / Xinhua]

PetroChina Co Ltd, the nation's largest oil and natural gas company, said on Tuesday that domestic fuel price reforms helped lift its third-quarter profit by 19 percent to 29.8 billion yuan ($4.9 billion).

Revenue was up 5.5 percent to 581.7 billion yuan, it announced.

The company said that the government's fuel price reforms, carried out earlier this year, allowed fuel prices to be more closely aligned with world markets.

That change improved conditions in its petroleum refining and natural gas sectors.

Losses in the refining and chemicals division shrank to 20 billion yuan for the first nine months, about half the year-earlier level.

Chairman Zhou Jiping said in a statement that the new pricing mechanism for refined products led to that decline.

In March, the country's top economic planner - the National Development and Reform Commission - introduced the new pricing system. It cut the 22-day pricing adjustment period to 10 days, and it also dropped the condition that international prices must fluctuate by 4 percent before domestic prices were adjusted.

Han Jingyuan, an analyst in the oil department of JYD Online, a bulk commodity consultancy in Beijing, said that the flexible pricing mechanism allows fuel prices to be determined by the market, not the government.

Between June 22 and Sept 30, fuel retail prices were raised four times and cut twice.