Energy

PetroChina to step up global expansion

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-08-27 11:46

PetroChina Co pledged to step up acquisitions and boost cooperation with global oil companies, Bloomberg reported Friday.

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"We will boost profitability at existing projects and seek new opportunities around existing ventures in Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific," said President Zhou Jiping of PetroChina, the listed arm of China's biggest oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation, at an earnings briefing in Hong Kong Thursday.

The oil producer plans to spend about $60 billion in the next decade on overseas takeovers.

PetroChina finalized the C$1.9 billion ($1.8 billion) stake purchase in two Canadian oil-sands projects in February and the acquisition of Australian coal-bed gas producer Arrow Energy Ltd with Royal Dutch Shell Plc for A$3.5 billion ($3.1 billion) this week.

PetroChina's first-half profit climbed 29 percent to 65.3 billion yuan. But its net income grew at 4 percent in the second quarter, down from 71 percent in the first as State-set gasoline prices lagged behind gains in crude.

China has adjusted prices 11 times since it introduced a mechanism in December 2008 that allows the government to revise prices when crude oil costs change more than 4 percent over 22 working days. Gasoline prices in the country have risen about 7 percent since the system took effect but crude has gained about 80 percent.