PetroChina suffers worst quarter; peer shows profit

China’s biggest oil and gas producer posted a loss for the first time in its publicly traded history, falling to the bottom of the barrel among oil majors as refining profits kept rivals afloat.

PetroChina Co. reported a 13.8 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) loss for the first quarter Thursday, it’s first since it started trading publicly in 2000.

Its state-owned peer, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the Asian oil refining behemoth known as Sinopec, reported profit over the same period tripled to about $1.3 billion.

European oil companies BP, Total SA and Statoil beat analysts projections and posted first-quarter profits earlier this week.

Refining margins in China were supported in the first quarter after the government of President Xi Jinping decided to halt fuel price adjustments when oil falls below US$40 a barrel.

The policy boosted domestic margins during the period to US$16 a barrel, a 45 per cent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to researcher ICIS China.

PetroChina’s oil and gas output is expected to fall for the first time in 17 years in 2016 as it shuts highcost fields that have “no hope” of making profits at current prices, president Wang Dongjin said last month.

Sinopec, Asia’s biggest refiner, processed 57.2 million tons of crude oil (about 4.6 million barrels a day) during the quarter, compared with PetroChina’s 33.7 million tons (about 2.7 million barrels a day), the companies said in separate earnings statements.

CNOOC Ltd., the third China oil major, posted a 31 per cent drop in quarterly revenue on Thursday, even as output rose 5.1 per cent and capital spending was slashed by 39 per cent.