Petrochina profit drops by a third on refining loss
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Smoke billows out of the chimneys at a Chinese state own PetroChina plant in Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning province Sunday Oct. 21, 2012. -- PHOTO: AP
HONG KONG (AP) - PetroChina said its profit tumbled by 33 per cent in the third quarter as crude oil prices dipped and the company continued to lose money at its refining division.
China's biggest oil and gas company said late on Tuesday that profit in the three months to September was 24.9 billion yuan (S$4.9 billion) or 0.14 yuan (S$2.7 cents) a share.
That's down from 37.4 billion yuan or 0.2 yuan a share in the same period a year ago.
The world's biggest publicly-traded oil producer said the refining business lost 30 billion yuan in the first nine months of 2012 because of Chinese government price controls aimed at keeping inflation at bay.
