MOSCOW (MRC) -- Net profits of PetroChina Company Ltd, China's largest oil and gas producer, edged up 0.8% year on year to 96.05 billion yuan (USD15.64 billion) in the first three quarters of 2014, said Chinadaily.
The pace was much slower than a 4% growth in the first half of this year.
During the first nine months, business revenue rose 4.3% to 1.75 trillion yuan, according to the company's quarterly report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
The company's slow profit growth was mainly attributable to a weak third quarter, when international oil prices declined. Its profits in the exploration and production sector dropped in the third quarter, and losses were seen in petrochemical businesses.
It produced 700 million barrels of crude oil in the first nine months, up 0.3% year on year, while its production of natural gas for sales rose 7.1% from a year earlier, according to the report.
As MRC wrote before, PetroChina plans to spend more than 10 billion yuan (USD1.6 billion) on shale gas this year. PetroChina's decision to triple its shale gas spending from expenditures on the unconventional fuel over the past few years comes just months after Sinopec lifted hopes that China is near a breakthrough by announcing a commercial find.
PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC