BEIJING: PetroChina Co Ltd reported sharply lower profits for the third quarter as weaker crude prices versus year-ago levels eroded margins at the country's largest oil and gas producer.

Faced with the worst downturn in the oil sector in a generation, the state-owned company said on Friday profit attributable to its owners plunged 76.9 percent to 1.2 billion yuan ($177.01 million) over the July-September period, down from 5.2 billion yuan a year ago.

Copyright Reuters, 2016