MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese oil giant PetroChina Co. says it expects little rebound in global oil prices this year as jockeying for position among top oil producers intensifies, said The Wall Street Journal.
China’s biggest oil and gas producer by volume has been perhaps the hardest hit among China’s three main state-owned oil and gas companies. PetroChina said Friday that it expected net profit to have fallen 60%-70% in 2015 compared with a year earlier.
"In 2016, the market of international oil and gas is expected to continue to slump," PetroChina said late Friday in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. "The market competition will be further intensified."
The preliminary results, if confirmed, are in line with the company’s 68% drop in profit in the first three quarters of 2015, and underscore how PetroChina is struggling to protect margins as oil prices sag. Investors have punished the company’s stock, whose value in Hong Kong fell by nearly 50% over the past year.
PetroChina reiterated its pledge to cut costs this year as well as diversify its income sources. It hasn’t provided details on projected capital expenditure cuts or production levels for 2016. PetroChina’s state-controlled oil rival Cnooc Ltd. said this month it would slash capital spending by 44% this year.
As MRC reported earlier, on 9 April 2015, PetroChina Co. passed Exxon Mobil Corp. as the biggest energy company by market value for the first time since 2010. Exxon’s capitalization was USD352.6 billion compared with PetroChina’s USD352.8 billion as of 1:36 p.m. on Thursday, 9 April, in Shanghai. The Chinese company’s A shares surged about 61 percent the past year, versus Exxon’s 14 percent drop. PetroChina was larger by value most recently at the close of trading on June 25, 2010.
PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC