Sales boost fails to lift CNPC's net
Oil project investor CNPC (Hong Kong) has reported a 22.89 per cent fall in net profit to HK$352.64 million for last year despite a rise in sales volume and turnover.
Hitting the company's bottom line was a sharp fall in earnings from its largest profit-contributing oilfield.
The attributable profit from Liaohe Leng Jiapu oilfield in Liaoning province, 70 per cent owned by CNPC (HK), dropped 28.25 per cent year on year to HK$247 million.
CNPC (HK) is a red-chip subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp - the mainland's largest oil producer - and a sister firm of H share PetroChina.
The company said last year's weighted average oil sales price was US$20.35 a barrel, a fall of 1.46 per cent year on year.
Sales volume rose 12.63 per cent and turnover increased 12.57 per cent to HK$1.66 billion.
CNPC (HK) contributed 283 million yuan (about HK$265.22 million) to the drilling costs at the Liaohe Leng Jiapu field and construction of ground production facilities. The field's sales volume last year was 1.28 million tonnes, flat from 2001.
The company's second-largest profit source, the 54 per cent-held Karamay oilfield in Xinjiang province, contributed HK$96 million attributable profit, down 15.86 per cent year on year. The oilfield's production fell 4.8 per cent.
The company's oil and gas pipeline manufacturing joint venture, North China Steel Pipes, started production last year for the PetroChina-led west-east gas pipeline and posted a net profit of 20.8 million yuan.
Attributable profit from the company's 95.67 per cent-held Sukhothai oil project in Thailand was HK$17.4 million, while its 50 per cent-held oilfield in Peru contributed HK$9.4 million.
The board recommended a final dividend of 3.5 HK cents, up from two HK cents previously.
