HONG KONG: PetroChina, the listed unit of China's largest oil and gas producer, said Thursday that higher oil prices had helped boost its profit more than a third last year.
The company said it earned 139.99 billion yuan ($21.3 billion) in 2010, up 35 percent from 103.39 billion yuan in 2009 with revenues rising 44 percent to 1.46 trillion yuan.
Hong Kong-listed PetroChina said it produced 1.23 billion barrels of crude and natural gas last year, about 2.7 percent more than in 2009. Its refineries processed 903.9 million barrels of crude oil in 2010, up 9.1 percent from the previous year, the firm said.
Oil prices have jumped in the past year amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, a weaker dollar and improving demand as the global economy gets back on track after the global downturn.
New York's main contract is sitting around $100 per barrel, up from about $80 last year, while Brent North Sea crude is at about $115, from around $80.
"2011 sees hopes of a recovery of the global economy, which may lead to higher energy demand," PetroChina said in a statement posted to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
"(But) factors like geopolitics and speculative trades could distort demand and supply patterns and bring major uncertainties to the trend of oil prices."
The company said it planned to accelerate construction of oil and gas pipelines, adding that China's booming economy "will hopefully continue and as a result, energy production and consumption will keep increasing and there exists substantial room for further development of oil and gas industries."
PetroChina shares closed down 0.7 percent at HK$10.46 (1.34) on Thursday.
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