| PetroChina oil, gas sales soar to record in 2006 |
SHANGHAI, Jan. 16 -- PetroChina Co said yesterday that its 2006 oil and gas output rose to record levels, jumping 5.2 percent on the back of higher selling prices and demand growth.
Total output amounted to the equivalent of 1.06 billion barrels of oil.
Crude oil production rose 0.8 percent to 829.7 million barrels, and natural gas output jumped 23.5 percent to 1.38 trillion cubic feet.
"The figures were basically in line with our expectations as well as the company's targets," said Liu Zhiyuan, an analyst at TX Investment Consulting Co. "For Chinese state oil company, energy output is largely decided by the government based on domestic demand."
Asia's top energy firm said it implemented a range of measures in the past year to enhance the recovery rate of mature oil fields that effectively controlled the decline in output in areas like the Daqing field, China's largest and oldest.
Overseas crude
On the overseas front, PetroChina said crude produced abroad rose 7.6 percent to 48.4 million barrels last year. The company said last Monday that it had completed the purchase of a 67 percent stake in PetroKazakhstan Inc from its unlisted state parent.
PetroChina's selling price for crude averaged US$59.76 a barrel in 2006, up 23.6 percent from a year earlier, while the average natural gas price was US$2.46 per thousand cubic feet, up 16.6 percent.
China cut domestic wholesale gasoline prices by some four percent over the weekend. Analysts said the reduction was mild compared with a sharp fall in crude rates.
Global crude prices began trending lower after topping US$78 a barrel in July. Prices plunged to a 19-month low last week at about US$51.
"The cut won't greatly affect earnings for oil firms like PetroChina and Sinopec," said Li Chen at Everbright Securities Co. "The price adjustment, kind of a symbolic move, didn't even include the more-used diesel fuel."
PetroChina processed 785 million barrels of oil into fuels last year, an increase of 4.3 percent from a year earlier. It produced 22 million tons of gasoline, up 2.9 percent on year; two million tons of kerosene, up 4.8 percent, and 44.2 million tons of diesel, up 2.9 percent.
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