The trading arm of China’s state-owned giant PetroChina is set to reap a record more than $3 billion (20 billion yuan) in trading profits this year as the Middle East crisis hiked crude prices and rattled global fuel markets and trade flows.
PetroChina International (PCI), the trading vehicle of the biggest oil and gas producer in Asia, is set to book more than $3 billion in gross trading profit for 2026, anonymous trade sources told Reuters.
PetroChina and other major oil and gas companies do not report trading profits individually, but they have said that this year’s Hormuz crisis and price spikes have resulted in exceptional profits in the crude, fuels, and LNG trading divisions.
PetroChina has a large upstream portfolio and downstream operations outside China reaping record-high margins, while crude and LNG trade have benefited from high price volatility and arbitrage opportunities.
For the first half of the year, PetroChina reported a record profit attributable to shareholders, up by 22% year over year to $15.5 billion (103.94 billion yuan).
It’s not only the Chinese state major that has benefited from the market turmoil this year.
All European oil and gas majors booked solid trading profits for the second quarter and expect another set of robust trading incomes for the third quarter, alongside bumper profits from record-high refining margins.
France’s TotalEnergies this week said it expects to report strong third-quarter results later this month as the Middle East conflict has driven up refining margins and LNG prices in a bull market.
Shell last week said that its refining margin for the third quarter nearly doubled sequentially to hit a record high, which is set to combine with strong trading results and high oil and gas realizations to keep yielding windfall profits for the UK-based supermajor. Shell expects its indicative refining margin for the third quarter to have jumped to $42 per barrel, up from $24 per barrel for the second quarter.
Norway’s Equinor also expects “unusually strong European refining margins” and optimization in third-party LNG trading to boost profits for the marketing, midstream, and processing (MMP) division above the $400-million guidance.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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