SHANGHAI (Interfax-China) -- PetroChina [NYSE:PTR], the listed arm of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), said Monday that the average realized price it attained for crude oil during the first nine months of this year fell by 0.56% year-on-year to $60.94 per barrel.
According to production and operational data released by PetroChina, the company's crude oil and gas output for the first nine months of the year came to 828 million barrels of oil equivalent, up by 4.3%, or 3,420 barrels, from the same period last year.
Broken down, crude oil output for the period came to 632 million barrels, up by just 0.9% year-on-year; while gas output reached 1,176.1 billion cubic feet, up 16.8%. During the third quarter alone, the company produced 212 million barrels of crude oil and 378.1 million cubic feet of marketable natural gas.
Che Changbo, vice director of the Ministry of Land and Resource's Strategic Research Center for Oil and Gas Resources, told Interfax that things may change as crude prices may rise towards the end of this year.
"The average price for crude oil is currently lower than last year due to the drop in international prices we saw in spring," he said, adding that "crude oil consumption is growing in the fourth quarter."
U.S. crude prices hit an all-time high of $90.02 in early trade on Friday, supported by tight fuel stocks ahead of winter and a softening U.S. dollar. Prices slipped 8 cents to $89.39 a barrel in late morning trade. London Brent crude dipped 30 cents to $84.30.
The company said that by the end of September, it had 912 more service stations than it did at the same time last year. There are now 18,846 PetroChina service stations spread around the country, including service stations owned and operated by third parties that have long-term supply arrangements with PetroChina.
The company also noted that its Lanzhou to Yinchuan gas pipeline project in northwestern China started operation in July, thereby completing a plan to connect the Sebei-Xining-Lanzhou Pipeline and the West-East Pipeline (WEP). The pipeline has a designed annual transmission capacity is 3.5 billion cubic meters.
Che said that the connection of the four major gas pipelines will help to balance the country's gas supplies and demand, especially in southwestern China.
Warren Buffett's investment company Berkshire Hathaway has sold its shares in PetroChina and made a $3.5 billion profit. Berkshire bought 11% of PetroChina's public shares in 2006 for $500 million.
Buffett said the sale was based solely on price, rebuffing suggestions he was reacting to criticism of PetroChina's links with Sudan, after some shareholders urged him to sell its stake because of atrocities in the troubled Darfur region.
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