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PetroChina first-half net income slumps 7.2% on lower oil prices

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-29 09:18

PetroChina Co, the world's most valuable company, said first-half profit fell 7.2 percent after crude oil prices dropped as the global economic slowdown curbed demand for fuels.

Net income declined to 50.5 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) from a restated 54.4 billion yuan a year earlier, the Beijing-based producer said in a statement yesterday. That's higher than the median estimate of 49.9 billion yuan in a Bloomberg News survey of seven analysts. Sales reached 415.3 billion yuan.

Crude averaged 54 percent lower than a year earlier as the recession cut consumption in the US and Europe. Earnings may improve in the second half as oil prices recover and PetroChina boosts investments in refining.

"China's fuel demand is improving and we forecast a much better second half," said Yin Xiaodong, a senior oil analyst with Beijing-based CITIC Securities Co, which has a "buy" rating on the stock. "The revised oil-product pricing mechanism gives PetroChina a guaranteed refining margin if global crude prices stay at a reasonable level."

PetroChina, which overtook Exxon Mobil Corp as the world's biggest company by market value in May, fell 0.2 percent to HK$8.81 before the result announcement. The shares, which have climbed about 30 percent this year, have lagged behind the 49 percent increase in China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's biggest refiner, and CNOOC Ltd's 43 percent gain.

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China Petroleum, as Sinopec is known, posted a fourfold surge in first-half profit after the government increased State-set gasoline and diesel prices and demand improved. Net income at CNOOC, China's biggest offshore oil producer, exceeded analysts' estimates as oil prices rebounded.

Eleven out of 25 analysts rate PetroChina stock a "buy", compared with 17 out of 30 for CNOOC. Twenty-one out of 27 analysts recommended buying Sinopec shares.

Oil futures in New York rose to $72 a barrel from a low of $33.55 a barrel on Feb 12 on speculation the global economy is recovering and fuel consumption may rise. They remain about 50 percent below the record $147.27 reached in July 2008.

China's economic growth accelerated to 7.9 percent in the second quarter from a 6.1 percent pace in the first three months that was the slowest in almost a decade.

PetroChina's refineries accounted for about 38 percent of China's processing capacity as of the end of 2006, according to data from its website.

Operating profit from its refining division reached 17.19 billion yuan under the new fuel pricing system introduced in December, PetroChina said.

Operating profit from its exploration and production division, accounting for 60 percent of PetroChina's assets, was 37.64 billion yuan in the first half.

PetroChina plans to make its refining business "a major profit contributor", President Zhou Jiping said in March. Spending on refining this year will rise 36 percent while expenditure on exploration and production will be cut by 15 percent, the company said then. Revenue from oil processing made up 74 percent of total sales in 2008.