Chinese oil giant PetroChina said Thursday its first-half net profit had risen 29.4 percent from a year earlier due to a sharp rise in oil prices helped by signs of global economic recovery.
The listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp reported a net profit of 65.33 billion yuan (9.6 billion dollars), compared with 50.50 billion yuan in the same period last year, PetroChina said in a stock market announcement.
PetroChina, which is listed in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai, said the increase was due in part to soaring crude prices, which gained around 50 percent year-on-year.
Total revenue for the six months rose 64.9 percent from a year earlier to 684.8 billion yuan, thanks to higher selling prices and volumes, reflecting the strong pick-up in demand as global economies cranked up activity.
"Stimulated by global economic recovery and a recovery in real demand, international crude oil prices rose sharply as compared with the same period of 2009," the statement said.
PetroChina said its crude oil output had increased 1.7 percent from a year earlier to 424.7 million barrels, while its natural gas production had risen 12.9 percent to 1.15 trillion cubic feet.
Overseas oil and natural gas equivalent production rose 8.3 percent to 55.2 million barrels.
PetroChina said in May it planned to invest 60 billion dollars abroad over the next decade in order to secure much-needed resources. It aims to build up its oil and natural gas output abroad to 200 million tonnes of oil equivalent annually.
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