(Bloomberg) -- PetroChina Co.’s profit fell in the third quarter amid lower global oil prices and continued weakness in the domestic economy.
The firm reported 43.91 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) net profit, compared to 46.4 billion yuan in the same period last year, it said in an exchange filing on Tuesday.
China’s biggest oil and gas supplier lifted its output to 436.8 million barrels of oil equivalent in the quarter, from 421.6 million barrels last year. The state-owned giant has answered Beijing’s call to increase domestic production on concerns of energy security, even as oil prices have suffered a recent slide. Brent crude averaged about $79 a barrel in the third quarter, down from $86 last year.
At the same time, a slowdown in the nation’s property sector and a shift toward electric transportation have eroded profits at its refining business. Cumulative losses for the nation’s fuel-makers totaled 32 billion yuan this year through September, according to government data. Profit from PetroChina’s refining, chemicals and new materials unit shrank to 1.7 billion yuan for the quarter, from 9.5 billion yuan last year.
Natural gas has become a bright spot, with demand seen growing far further into the future than oil. Profits for the gas and pipeline unit grew by 58% over the previous year to 8.5 billion yuan for the quarter.
(Updates with additional details in the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs.)
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