PetroChina sees net profit rise 8.3% to record high of over $22b

PetroChina saw its net profit hit a record high last year, rising 8.3 percent year-on-year to 161.1 billion yuan ($22.34 billion) on strong fuel and gas sales, compared with 148.7 billion in 2022, the company said on Monday.

Revenue, meanwhile, fell 7.0 percent to 3 trillion yuan, the firm said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday.

Operating profit for the natural gas segment more than tripled to 43 billion yuan from around 13 billion yuan, while operating profit in the marketing segment rose 66.7 percent on the previous year.

Oil and gas equivalent production reached a new high last year, as the company accelerated exploitation and exploration, with significant breakthroughs and important discoveries made in key basins such as the Ordos Basin and the Tarim Basin.

In 2023, the company's oil and gas equivalent production reached 1.76 billion barrels, a year-on-year rise of 4.4 percent. Domestic oil and gas equivalent production reached 1.56 billion barrels, a year-on-year increase of 3.4 percent. This included crude oil production of 770 million barrels, a year-on-year increase of 0.8 percent and marketable natural gas production of 4.7 trillion cubic feet, a year-on-year rise of 6 percent, it said.

Natural gas production continued to grow rapidly throughout last year, with its proportion in oil and gas equivalent production continuously increasing.

PetroChina recorded a 17.3 percent rise in domestic sales of gasoline, diesel and kerosene combined, while chemical new materials output increased 60 percent year-on-year.

Refinery crude throughput rose 15.3 percent to around 1.4 billion barrels, compared with the previous year's 1 percent decline due to a strong recovery in gasoline and aviation fuel demand as China dropped pandemic curbs.

The refining segment seized the favorable opportunity of market recovery, improving the proportion of featured refined products and high-end chemical products. The group will continue promoting the refining and chemical business towards the middle and high-end of the industrial chain, it said.