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PetroChina Reports 5.3 Per Cent Output Increase

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 October 2005, 21:01 CDT

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 18 October: PetroChina Company Ltd announced Monday [17 October] that during the first three quarters of 2005 it saw a total output of 722m barrels of oil equivalent, an increase of 36.3m barrels or 5.3 per cent year on year. In the third quarter of 2005, the company continued to increase crude oil and natural gas production, with crude oil output reaching 198m barrels and marketable natural gas output achieving 257bn cubic feet.

In the first three quarters, the company saw its crude oil output amount to an accumulated 595m barrels, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.7 per cent, while the accumulated output of marketable natural gas reached 763.3bn cubic feet, rising by 26.1 per cent over the same period in 2004. In the first three quarters, PetroChina's average realized price of crude oil reached 47.35 US dollars per barrel, 50.08 per cent higher than a year ago.

In the refining sector, PetroChina processed 184m barrels of crude oil in the third quarter. It produced 5.21m tons of gasoline, 10.687m tons of diesel and 572,000 tons of kerosene. During the first three quarters of 2005, the company processed an accumulated 563m barrels of crude oil, representing an increase of 35.30m barrels or 6.7 per cent over the same period of 2004. Continuing to expand its sales network, PetroChina saw the number of its service stations reach 17,379 by the end of this September, 220 more than a year ago with a year-on-year increase of 1.2 per cent.

In the third quarter of this year, PetroChina produced 482,000 tons of ethylene, 724,000 tons of synthetic resin, 67,000 tons of synthetic rubber, and 860,000 tons of urea. During the first three quarters of 2005, the company produced a total of 1.423m tons of ethylene, increasing by four per cent year on year, 2.035m tons of synthetic resin, increasing by 7.6 per cent and 2.817m tons of urea with a year-on-year growth of 3.1 per cent.

In the third quarter, PetroChina made smooth and rapid progress in scheduled building of key oil and gas pipelines. The second Shaanxi-Beijing pipeline began operation ahead of schedule on 1 July. The line has a trunk length of 935 km and a designed annual capacity of 12bn cubic metres.

In addition, construction of the gas pipeline linking north China's Hebei Province to Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, a branch of the West-East Pipeline and the oil pipeline between the Alashankou Pass and the Dushanzi oil refinery in northwestern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region are proceeding smoothly.

As the joint stock company of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil producer, PetroChina holds most of the assets and liabilities of the CNPC relating to its exploration and production, refining and marketing, chemicals and natural gas businesses.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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