(Yicai Global) Jan. 13 — Shares in PetroChina advanced as much as 4.6 percent today after the Chinese oil and gas giant said it expects net profit to nearly quintuple last year from a year earlier, its best performance in six years, thanks to higher oil prices and stronger demand.
PetroChina’s Shanghai-listed shares [SHA:601857] were trading up 3.1 percent at CNY5.50 (USD0.86) as of 1:30 p.m. China time today. Earlier in the day they had hit CNY5.58. Its Hong Kong stock [HKG:0857] was 1.83 percent higher at HKD3.89 (USD0.50).
PetroChina is anticipating an almost five-fold jump in net profit in 2021 from the year before to reach as much as CNY94 billion (USD14.7 billion), the most since 2015, the Beijing-based company said yesterday. Revenue figures were not provided in the earnings forecast.
PetroChina, a unit of state-owned energy company China National Petroleum, has made the most of the opportunities offered by surging oil prices and greater demand for oil and gas as the country’s economy picked up, it said. The company has expanded oil and gas exploration and has achieved substantial growth in sales. It has also strengthened cost management to reduce expenses.
Net profit surged seven-and-a-half times in the first three quarters of 2021 from the same period the year before to CNY75.1 billion (USD11.8 billion), according to its latest financial report. Revenue soared 31.9 percent over the period to CNY1.88 trillion (USD295.5 billion).
Editor: Kim Taylor