PetroChina Co. Ltd. said March 21 that its net profit attributable to owners of the company surged 130.7% to 52.59 billion Chinese yuan in 2018, compared with 22.80 billion yuan a year ago, driven by exploration and production.

Based on International Financial Reporting Standards, the company saw revenue of 2.35 trillion yuan in 2018, topping 2.02 trillion yuan a year earlier.

Net income from operations totaled 121 billion yuan, up 78.7% from a year earlier.

The company's exploration and production unit reported a profit of 73.52 billion yuan, well above the 15.48 billion yuan reported a year earlier.

The natural gas and pipeline business had an income of 25.52 billion yuan, up by 9.83 billion yuan from a year ago.

Refining and chemicals profited 42.76 billion yuan, while marketing saw a loss at 6.45 billion yuan.

Crude oil output climbed 0.4% year over year to 890 million barrels, while marketable natural gas output grew to 3.6 trillion cubic feet, up 5.4% from a year ago.

Oil and gas equivalent output rose to 1.49 billion barrels, which includes 200 million barrels from overseas operations.

As of March 20, US$1 was equivalent to 6.69 Chinese yuan.