What’s new: State-owned energy giant PetroChina Co. Ltd. (601857.SH) (中国石油天然气股份有限公司) will focus more on offshore drilling and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, an executive said, as the company looks to improve its lagging overseas oil and gas business amid a wave of consolidation.
PetroChina aims to “increase the return on investment from its overseas business,” Senior Vice President Zhang Daowei said Wednesday.
The company will continue working on its existing projects in Central Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific, and will increase investment in “quality projects to optimize its business structure,” according to its earnings report released Tuesday.
In 2023, PetroChina’s overseas business generated revenue of about 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion), accounting for 33.6% of its total, the report said. However, the business produced only 17.6%, or 41.7 billion yuan, of the company’s annual pre-tax profit.
Overall, PetroChina’s total revenue slid 7% year-on-year in 2023 to around 3 trillion yuan, which was mainly due to dramatic drops in both oil and gas prices, according to the report. Net profit attributable to shareholders grew 8.3% for the year to a record high of 161.1 billion yuan.
The background: The oil and gas sector is consolidating at a record pace, as companies vie for strategic resources globally amid geopolitical uncertainties.
The total value of global merger and acquisition deals among exploration and production companies jumped to more than $250 billion in 2023, setting a new record, according to a report by a think tank affiliated to state-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corp.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
