Oil major PetroChina was all smiles on Monday, as it informed investors that it expected its profit for 2018 to rise a healthy 123% to 132% to between 28 billion yuan ($4.1 billion) and 30 billion yuan.

Market watchers will recall that 2018 was a banner year for oil, at least the first three quarters of the year, as crude prices crested above $80 per barrel in early October. 

But it’s been downhill from there, with prices hovering just around the $60 level at the moment.

Despite seeming large, the annual profit rise that PetroChina is forecasting is actually down quite a bit from the 177% profit gain it posted for the first three quarters of the year in its latest quarterly report. That means the company probably suffered a sharp profit slowdown in the fourth quarter, even though it wasn’t focusing on that fact in its just-released annual forecast. 

"In the first three quarters of 2018, the fundamental supply and demand in the global oil market were generally balanced, while the international crude oil price fluctuated with a general tendency to move upwards,” PetroChina said in its latest profit forecast. “Despite the significant drop in oil prices in the fourth quarter, the international average crude oil price of 2018 experienced a relatively significant rise as compared with the previous year.”

While pricing trends aren’t so good right now, investors don’t seem too worried, at least not yet. PetroChina’s Hong Kong-listed shares are up a healthy 5% so far this year, including a 1.6% rise on Monday.

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