China Oil Giant PetroChina Says Profit Down 23 Pct

BEIJING (AP) — PetroChina Ltd., Asia's biggest oil producer, said Thursday its third-quarter profit plunged 23.4 percent from a year earlier as it suffered a double blow from lower crude prices and weak demand.

Profit for the three months ending Sept. 30 was 30.8 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) or 0.17 yuan (2 U.S. cents) per share, compared with 40.1 billion yuan or 0.22 yuan per share a year earlier, the Beijing-based oil company reported.

Total revenue fell 12 percent from a year earlier to 267.7 billion yuan ($39.3 billion) on weak demand amid the global economic crisis, PetroChina said.

The company said its production unit suffered from sharply lower crude prices, earning an average $49 per barrel over the first nine months of the year, compared with $97.24 for the same period of 2008. It did not give third-quarter figures.

Oil production for the first nine months of the year fell 3.7 percent to 631 million barrels, the company said.

PetroChina and rival Sinopec, or China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., have been hurt by government controls that blocked them from passing on 2008's record-high crude costs to Chinese consumers. Retail prices were cut this year as crude costs fell, preventing the producers from taking advantage of the decline to reap fatter profits.