On the evening of August 26th, PetroChina Company Limited (00857.HK, hereinafter referred to as "PetroChina") released its semi-annual report for 2024 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company achieved a revenue of 1.55 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 5%; it realized a net profit attributable to the parent company of 88.611 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.9%, setting a historical record.
PetroChina stated in the semi-annual report that the increase in revenue was mainly due to the rise in the prices of the company's crude oil and gasoline, the increase in natural gas sales volume, and the simultaneous increase in both quantity and price of products such as kerosene and polyethylene.
First Financial Daily reporters noticed that in the first half of the year, nearly half of PetroChina's main products saw an average increase in external sales prices, with crude oil, gasoline, and kerosene leading the increase. Among them, the average external sales price of crude oil rose by 8.1% year-on-year, reaching 4,207 yuan/ton; the average external sales price of gasoline rose by 4.4% year-on-year, reaching 8,341 yuan/ton.
In terms of sales volume, PetroChina's main products such as natural gas, kerosene, and lubricating oil performed brightly. In the first half of the year, the company's lubricating oil sales volume led the increase with a 32.4% rise, reaching 1.01 million tons; kerosene and natural gas sales volumes followed, rising by 16.4% and 12.9% year-on-year, reaching 10.243 million tons and 147.217 billion cubic meters, respectively.
Advertisement
In the first half of this year, the recovery of international economic growth drove the rebound in crude oil demand. The continuation of the production cut strategy by the oil-producing countries' alliance led to a tight supply, coupled with the impact of geopolitical conflicts, which caused international oil prices to rise year-on-year. The average spot prices of Brent and WTI crude oil rose by 5.5% and 5.6% year-on-year, reaching $84.06 per barrel and $78.95 per barrel, respectively. In the refined oil market, due to the intensification of competition from alternative energy sources, domestic refined oil market consumption was suppressed, and the supply and demand remained in a loose pattern. The chemical market saw an improvement in the supply and demand fundamentals due to the underperformance of new capacity and the expansion of plant maintenance scale, leading to a general increase in domestic main chemical product prices and a recovery in production profits. In the natural gas market, although the global supply and demand fundamentals remained loose, China's steady economic recovery drove a rapid increase in domestic natural gas consumption.
PetroChina is the largest oil and gas production and sales company in China's oil and gas industry. The company's business is mainly managed by four major divisions: oil and gas and new energy, refining and chemical engineering, and new materials, sales, and natural gas sales.
The oil and gas and new energy division achieved the highest operating profit of 91.659 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. In the first half of the year, PetroChina's total oil and gas production was 906 million barrels, a year-on-year increase of 1.3%. Among them, the proportion of natural gas production was further increased, with the company's marketable natural gas production reaching 25.8 trillion cubic feet, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%. PetroChina stated that it actively promoted the development of new projects in the first half of the year, obtaining high-yield oil flow in the Chad PSA project, and the expansion project of the Qatari North Field was successfully delivered.
The natural gas sales division followed, achieving an operating profit of 14.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19%. The company sold 147.217 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%, of which domestic sales accounted for 78%, reaching 114.937 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. PetroChina stated that it actively developed high-end and efficient markets in the first half of the year, increased the development of direct sales and terminal customers, and used online transaction channels to improve sales volume and efficiency.
The refining and chemical engineering and new materials division achieved an operating profit of 13.629 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.72%. PetroChina stated that the company expanded the high-end and specialty product market in the first half of the year, and the production of new materials increased by 72% year-on-year, reaching 1.074 million tons, leading the chemical segment. However, due to the narrowing of the refining business's gross profit margin, the operating profit decreased by 43.26% year-on-year, which dragged down the performance of this division.
Based on the capital expenditure of 78.942 billion yuan in the first half of the year, PetroChina is expected to have a capital expenditure of 179.058 billion yuan in the second half of the year, of which more than 80% (145.587 billion yuan) will be invested in the oil and gas and new energy division. This will be used to promote concentrated exploration in the scale reserve areas of the Tarim, Ordos, Sichuan, and other basins, to focus on concentrated exploration of projects such as Chad PSA and Kazakhstan's Ak-Zholbin, to accelerate the production of the first phase of the Canadian LNG project, and to actively participate in the bidding for wind and photovoltaic power generation indicators.It is noteworthy that China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) announced on the same day that its subsidiary, the Daqing Oilfield, plans to invest 5.979 billion yuan (excluding taxes and fees) to acquire 100% of the equity of PetroChina Electric Power Co., Ltd. PetroChina Electric Power is primarily engaged in the business of power generation, power supply, electricity sales, heating, and power engineering design and construction. "The board of directors, considering that the main business of PetroChina Electric Power is power generation and heating, with relatively stable operations, good future returns, and strong profitability, places greater emphasis on the future benefits of PetroChina Electric Power in the acquisition," CNPC stated in the announcement.
Comments