PetroChina, one of the country’s top producers and refiners, reported what may be its worst quarter on record, with net income falling almost 80 percent year-on-year to around $820 million.
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The company attributed the decline to weak global economic recovery, slow growth in China and low worldwide crude oil prices. Brent, the benchmark for more than half of the world’s crude, averaged about $51 a barrel in the third quarter, compared with more than $103 a year ago.
Net profits are expected to decrease significantly if crude oil prices remain low during the fourth quarter, one of China’s largest producers warned. Oil prices during the the period were 19 percent lower than the preceding quarter. Half-year profit dropped 22 percent to 25.4 billion yuan, it said in August.
The firm plans to cut back operations at its refineries by about 5 percent in the fourth quarter.
CNOOC’s output growth was also faster, with total oil and gas production rising 16.9 per cent year on year in the year’s first nine months.
Sinopec dropped 0.7 percent to HK$5.62 before the earnings statement was released.
The company said oil-and-gas production fell 1.84% in the first nine months to 350.82 million barrels of oil equivalent.
PetroChina’s grim upstream performance was partially offset by better downstream results.
Net profit for July-September declined 81.4 percent to 5.2 billion yuan from 27.9 billion yuan a year earlier.
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“We believe there are signs that the oil market is close to bottoming and may rebalance in the coming 12 months”, said BNP Paribas head of Asia energy research Por Yong-liang in a report.
