Analysts say China's oil majors set to unveil falling profits
The big mainland oil and gas firms are expected to unveil lower earnings for last year because of rising costs, refining losses
All three of the mainland's state-backed oil and gas majors are tipped by analysts to post lower profits for last year, although they are expected to see better fortunes this year.
For the second-largest producer, China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec), which is due to report on Sunday, the analysts predicted a 12.6 per cent fall in net profit to 62.7 billion yuan.
CNOOC, the mainland's dominant offshore oil and gas producer, which is due to reveal its results on Friday, was predicted to show a 7.6 per cent drop in profit, to 64.9 billion yuan.
The Brent international crude oil benchmark averaged US$111 last year, the highest annual average on record, up 3.5 per cent from 2011, according to Reuters. However, the big mainland oil firms have been hit by rising production costs, and losses in downstream oil refining and natural gas imports.
CNOOC, a pure oil and gas producer that has no oil refining or gas import operations, saw its profits squeezed by higher production costs that more than offset gains from higher oil prices, amid slow output growth.