PetroChina Q3 net profit falls 6.2% on weak chemicals market

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–PetroChina’s third-quarter net profit fell by 6.2% year on year to yuan (CNY) 27.9bn ($4.6bn) amid weakness in chemical markets and poor demand for petroleum products, the Chinese energy firm said late on Wednesday.

Revenues for the three months to September rose by 3.2% year on year to CNY600.6bn, but operating profit declined 3.0% to CNY42.5bn, the company said in a statement.

In the first nine months of the year, the company’s net profit inched up 0.8% year on year to CNY96bn, while its operating profit increased 1.2% to CNY145.5bn, the company said.

PetroChina’s chemical operations incurred an operating loss of CNY11.3bn in January-September 2014, slightly lower than the CNY14.7bn loss recorded in the previous corresponding period, it said.

Production of ethylene for the nine-month period increased 26.3% year on year to 3.7m tonnes, while its synthetic resins output grew 22.4% to 5.9m tonnes.

PetroChina’s refining segment posted an operating profit of CNY2.6bn in Jan-Sept 2014, a reversal of the CNY5.3bn loss recorded in the previous corresponding period as throughput increased by 1.9% to 68m tonnes.

Sales volumes in the refinery segment, including gasoline, diesel and kerosene totalled  117.6m tonnes in January-September 2014, down by 1.5% the previous corresponding period due to weak demand.

Meanwhile, PetroChina’s total oil and gas production in the first three quarters of 2014 stood at about 1.07bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), representing a 2.5% increase year on year.

($1 = CNY6.12)

Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections