PetroChina Rides Higher Oil Prices to Best First-Half in Seven Years

What’s new: PetroChina Co. Ltd. (601857.SH) reported a turnaround year-on-year profit of 53 billion yuan ($8.18 billion), the best first-half result in seven years, thanks to higher oil prices and recovery in fuel demand.

The listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) recovered from a 30 billion yuan loss in the same period last year when oil prices plunged and production was shut down due to the emerging Covid-19 pandemic. First-half revenue was up 29% at 1.2 trillion yuan, according to its earnings report released Thursday after the market closed.

In the six months through June, the company’s oil and gas output fell 1.7% to 819.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, as crude oil output dropped 6.8% while natural gas rose 5.1%.

The background: PetroChina, which is also listed in New York and Hong Kong, noted its results were boosted by macroeconomic recovery, a rebound in oil prices and growth in demand for oil and gas products.

The company aims to have oil, gas and green energies each take up a third of its capital expenditure by 2035, according to Chairman Dai Houliang.

It is also working towards peaking carbon emissions around 2025 and achieving near-zero emissions by 2050, ahead of China’s goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2060.

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Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com)

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