PetroChina NEWS

PetroChina may sell out from natural gas projects in Australia and oil sands in Canada to stem losses and divert funds to more lucrative sites in the Middle East, Africa and central Asia, two people with knowledge of the matter said. PetroChina's plan follows a similar strategic shift by smaller state peer CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK), which was preparing to exit its operations in Britain, Canada and the United States because of concerns the assets could become subject to Western sanctions.

The move by Asia's biggest oil refiner to hit the brakes on a potentially half--billion-dollar investment in a gas chemical plant and a venture to market Russian gas in China highlights the risks of unexpectedly heavy Western-led sanctions.

Chinese oil producer, PetroChina yesterday reported to a first-quarter net loss, sliding over declining oil prices and moderate refined fuel demand, as rising oil and gas production. A filing made to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the energy giant recorded a net loss of $2.29 billion for the January-March quarter, in comparison to a net profit reported last year. Revenue for the firm fell 14.4% to $72 billion.

Daqing, PetroChina’s oil and gas production unit, has reported an increase in production of oil and natural gas during 2019. The oil production has raised by 4.7 % between 2018 and 2019. The company produced about 43.63 million tonnes of oil in 2019. The amount of natural gas production also increased to 4.5 billion cubic meters from 4.33 bcm in 2018. The company thanked to improving technologies which have aided in the rise of production.

Shell and PetroChina's joint venture Arrow Energy has won leases for a project worth $7.2 billion. The project aims at the development of Australia's biggest coal seam gas resource. In order to cut the project's cost, Arrow will use QCLNG's gas processing and pipeline infrastructure. According to the Queensland government, 14 leases have been granted to Arrow Energy for the Surat project.

Asia’s largest oil and gas producer, PetroChina registered its highest Q3 profit since 2014. In a regulatory filing, PetroChina yesterday reported $3.02 billion in net profits, ramping up 350% from 4.69 billion yuan in 3Q2017. Revenue for the state-owned firm rose by 24.8%, owing to higher global oil and gas prices.

Sources have said that CNPC-owned PetroChina is setting up its first office in South Asia to look for business opportunities in oil and liquefied natural gas. The move is seen as Chinese oil major’s strategy of expanding its role in overseas markets. According to the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs website, the company was listed as PetroChina International (India) in July with a total paid-up capital of $444,000 in Mumbai.

The LNG venture of Royal Dutch Shell in Canada is a step closer to a final approval after two of its partners approved their investment share. PetroChina confirmed its $3.46 billion share of the project and Korea Gas Corp did the same. The rest of the partners, Petroliam Nasional of Malaysia and Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan are required to do the same in order to approve final investment decision.

World’s biggest LNG firm, Qatargas today entered into a 22-year long sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with PetroChina’s international arm, PetroChina International Company Limited. The agreement requires Qatargas to supply China with around 3.4 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per annum. LNG will be supplied from the the Qatargas 2 project, which is a joint venture between ExxonMobil, Qatar Petroleum and Total.

CNPC’s listed arm, PetroChina updated about the completion of a new pipeline by Yunnan refinery for the transportation of gasoline and diesel. The newly constructed pipeline is 81 km long, with an annual transport capacity of 1.68 million tonnes. The Yunnan refinery is one of the PetroChina’s largest refining projects with 260,000 barrels per day of crude refining capacity that began production in 2017.

China-based PetroChina Co’s net profit in the recent quarter folded twice from a year earlier. The profit of second-quarter increased to $2.48 billion from the corresponding last year quarter. The revenue of the recent quarter has climbed up by 17.5% which is highest since the 2014 third quarter. The surge in the overall earnings was due to high crude oil prices, strong gas sales, and good refining margins.

Following an anti-trust violation over the sale of CNG, the State Administration for Market Regulation has imposed a $12.35 million fine on PetroChina’s Daqing gas sales units. The Daqing gas sales division had entered into a market monopoly agreement with 13 suppliers of compressed natural gas across various Chinese cities. Lower domestic gas supplies have forced LNG prices to climb higher in the country.

Hong Kong-based PetroChina has awarded a three-year-long LNG supply contract to ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG project. Under the terms of the contract, 0.45 million tonnes a year (0.45Mt/y) of LNG from the operation in Papua New Guinea, will be supplied to PetroChina, reaching 1.35 million tonnes in 3 years. The PNG LNG project is already supplying some 6.6Mt to major Asian customers like Sinopec, Osaka Gas and others.

CNPC subsidiary, Petrochina, is increasing its natural gas supplies to meet customer demand. This increment is being carried out in both domestic fields as well as in imports. Reportedly, Chinese oil and gas producer has raised gas supplies by 14 percent from April 2017. PetroChina lifted production in the beginning of this year at major domestic fields by more than 2 percent to around 30.5 billion cubic metres.

PetroChina’s net income jumped to $3.6 billion in 2017 as earnings from E&P overcame asset write-downs and losses from importing natural gas. Analysts are of the view that profit could have been very impressive if not for the large asset write-downs. Efficiency remains an issue, as total production has fallen even as spending exceeded the budget it set at the beginning of last year.