PetroChina logs best-ever profit, benefits from high global energy prices

PetroChina posted its best-ever first-half earnings as the nation’s top oil and gas driller benefited from soaring global energy prices, and said that government stimulus is starting to lift Chinese oil demand. 
 
The firm reported 82.39 billion yuan ($12 billion) in net income for the first half of the year, up 55 per cent from the same period in 2021, according to an exchange filing on Thursday. Revenue rose 35 per cent to 1.61 trillion yuan.
 
Global crude prices averaged $105 a barrel in the first six months, 62 per cent higher than last year, providing a windfall to producers after several years of depressed prices. PetroChina has invested heavily in maintaining steady oil production while boosting gas output to match the country’s goal of tapping into cleaner fuels.
 
PetroChina’s smaller state-owned peer Cnooc Ltd. more than doubled its first-half profit to 71.9 billion yuan. Cnooc has more direct exposure to rising oil prices than PetroChina because it’s mostly focused on offshore drilling and doesn’t have massive refining and petrochemical factories. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia’s biggest refiner, completes the earnings reports for China’s big three oil companies on Sunday. PetroChina also disclosed a 3.1 per cent increase in oil and gas output to 845 million barrels of oil equivalent, in response to Beijing’s order to enhance domestic energy supply amid an increasingly complex geopolitical environment.
 

The benchmark Brent oil price spiked to a 13-year high of over $130 a barrel in early March on the prospect of supply disruption after Russia invaded Ukraine and Western countries vowed to enforce an embargo on Russian oil.
 
PetroChina recorded a 3.4 per cent growth in domestic oil output and 4.4 per cent rise in domestic gas production. PetroChina’s capital expenditure was at 92.31 billion yuan in the first half of 2022, up 25 per cent from a year ago, as the firm expanded oil and gas exploration. That represented 38 per cent of the annual budget this year.
 
PetroChina’s refinery throughput dipped 1.4 per cent to 597.5 million barrels in the first half of 2022, while sales of gasoline, diesel and kerosene combined were down 11.1 per cent to 71.43 million tonnes.