PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina), China´s largest oil and gas producer, Thursday reported first-half profits up 29.4 percent year on year due to soaring crude oil prices and rising oil and gas output.

Net profits totaled 65.33 billion yuan (9.6 billion U.S. dollars) and earnings per share rose to 0.36 yuan from 0.28 yuan, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

The company´s crude oil output rose by 1.7 percent to 425 million barrels in the first half. It produced 1.15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, up 12.9 percent year on year.

The average selling price of its crude oil was 72.4 U.S. dollars per barrel, up 70.6 percent from a year ago.

The Beijing-based company´s total gas and oil output reached 617 million barrels of oil equivalent in the first half, up 4.9 percent, of which 55.2 million barrels were produced by its overseas businesses, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier.

The company refined 439 million barrels of crude oil in the first six months, up 12.8 percent year on year, but operating profits in oil refining and chemicals business dropped by 68.3 percent to 5.46 billion yuan, the statement said.

The oil firm said it expected demand in petroleum and petrochemical markets to continue to improve in the second half as the national economy was likely to maintain relatively fast growth.

But the company also said it faced instability factors over the rest of the year, including fluctuating international crude oil prices and possible changes in domestic policy.

Source: Xinhua