Interpac Business and Migration Solutions Melbourne Australia

(March 18, 2011)

PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina), China's largest oil and gas producer, reported Thursday that its net profit for 2010 surged 35.4 percent from a year ago.

PetroChina's net profit totaled 139.99 billion yuan (21.3 billion U.S. dollars) and earnings per share stood at 0.76 yuan in 2010 according to the international financial reporting standards (IFRS), the company said in a statement to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

"The group achieved steady development in production and operations in 2010, with a substantial rise in its overall operating results compared with 2009," said the statement.

According to the IFRS, the company's business revenues totaled 1.47 trillion yuan, up 43.8 percent year on year.

The company's total gas and oil output last year reached 1.228 billion barrels of oil equivalent, up 2.7 percent, with crude oil output up 1.7 percent, the highest rise in recent years, and natural gas, up 5.2 percent.

Operating profits in oil drilling and production was 153.7 billion yuan, up 46.4 percent from 2009, remaining the most important profit contributor to PetroChina.

According to the report, the profit margin of refining and chemicals operations narrowed as a result of the rising crude oil prices and the fact that such rise was not fully reflected in the prices of domestic refined products.

The operating profit of the refining and chemicals dropped by 54.7 percent to 7.8 billion yuan, while operating profits in the marketing segment rose by 20.3 percent to 16 billion yuan, and the segment of natural gas and pipeline, up 7.2 percent to 20.4 billion yuan.

PetroChina is the Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation.

Share prices of the company in the mainland A share market rose by 0.78 percent to 11.64 yuan Thursday, while the price in Hong Kong dropped 0.759 percent to 10.46 Hong Kong dollars.

(Source: China.org.cn)