PetroChina's oil and gas output rose 3.3% year on year to 4.79 million boe/d in the first quarter, the company's quarterly result showed on April 29, as Beijing called to stabilize domestic crude production and raise gas output.
The volume in the first three months also exceeded its annual production target of 4.59 million boe/d for 2022.
Analysts said high crude and gas prices also encouraged upstream producers to raise output to boost profits.
As a result, its exploration and production sector made Yuan 38.8 billion ($5.89 billion) in profit from operations, more than triple the profit of Yuan 12.88 billion reported om the previous year, to become the only segment to see a year-on-year increase.
PetroChina's domestic oil and gas output account for over 50% of China's total production.
The rising output volumes help to meet the country's annual oil and gas production targets of 200 million mt and 214 Bcm, respectively, for 2022.
PetroChina's domestic natural gas output rose 5.4% year on year to 33.49 Bcm in Q1, while crude production rose 3.7% to 26.07 million mt, or 2.14 million b/d.
Refining and sales
The crude processed by the company rose 1.5% on the year to 3.36 million b/d in Q1, and accounted for 82% of its primary capacity of 4.09 million b/d.
PetroChina trimmed its product yields for gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel to a total of 64% in Q1 from 67% in a year ago. This differed from the company's peers which cut petrochemical production yield due to narrowing profit.
Among the key oil products, the production of jet fuel saw the highest year-on-year reduction of 22.6% to stand at 2.2 million mt in Q1 as tight COVID-19 controls in China dampened demand from aviation.
The company's domestic sales of jet fuel also fell 21.7% on the year to 1.68 million mt.
The company's total jet fuel sales, including the international trading barrels, rose 5.5% year on year to 3.5 million mt, suggesting that PetroChina leveraged strong demand from overseas as the international aviation market recovered from the pandemic.
PetroChina's operation result
Unit
2022 target
Q1 2022
Q1 2021
YoY vol Change
Crude oil output*
mil barrel
898.6
224.9
221.4
1.6%
Natural gas output*
Bcf
4,625.1
1,235.5
1,173.9
5.2%
Domestic gas output
Bcf
4,432.6
1,182.6
1,122.3
5.4%
Oil & gas equivalent output*
mil boe
1,669.7
430.9
417.1
3.3%
Crude throughput
mil barrel
1,269.4
302.4
298.0
1.5%
Loss/Profit from operation
bil Yuan
NA
57.3
44.8
27.9%
Capital expenditure
bil Yuan
242.0
51.8
37.0
40.0%
* Oil, gas outputs from both domestic and overseas
Source: company report
PetroChina's domestic production (Unit: mil mt)
Q1 2022
China Q1 2022
^share in China
Q1 2021
YoY vol Change
Natural gas (Bcm)
33.49
56.95
58.8%
31.78
5.4%
Crude oil
26.07
51.19
50.9%
25.15
3.7%
Refinery throughput
40.93
171.44
23.9%
40.33
1.5%
Gasoline
11.78
39.94
29.5%
12.40
-5.0%
Gasoil
12.27
45.29
27.1%
11.71
4.8%
Jet/Kerosene
2.20
8.19
26.9%
2.84
-22.6%
^ Divide PetroChina's output by China's total production
Source: company report, National Bureau of Statistics
PetroChina's total oil product sales volume (Unit: mil mt)
Gasoline
15.57
16.42
-5.2%
Source: company report
PetroChina's domestic oil product total sales volume (Unit: mil mt)
Gasoline
12.55
12.86
-2.4%
Jet fuel
1.68
2.15
-21.7%
Source: company report
