PetroChina Co., China's biggest oil conglomerate, said Thursday that its first-half net profit rose 1.4 percent from a year earlier due to modest output growth.
Strong prices for refined products such as gasoline helped boost sales, although purchasing expenses also rose significantly, PetroChina said. The results exceeded analysts forecasts, although PetroChina's net profit growth has slowed from 2005.
That year profit rose 28 percent on soaring oil prices and increased production. PetroChina said its total oil and natural gas production rose 3.7 percent in the first six months of the year compared with a year earlier, to 552.7 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Its Crude oil output rose a scant 0.1 percent, to 419.7 million barrels. The company's chairman, Jiang Jiemin, said PetroChina will focus on exploration to help build its resource base.
"The persistently high and fast growing demand for oil and gas will provide great opportunities for the business development of the company," Jiang said, in a statement.
PetroChina said the increase in its net profit resulted mainly from a revision in its tax status. The company said Thursday that it signed a production sharing contract with Turkmenistan for a natural gas field in the central Asian country.
The gas field is expected to produce 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Turkmenistan also plans to sell 17 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to China for a period of 30 years, PetroChina announced. PetroChina is offering to build a pipeline from Turkmenistan to China to transport the natural gas, the company said.
