PetroChina Q3 Profit Jumps to $7.78 Billion

PetroChina’s third-quarter profit rose 21.6% on Iran war-inflated oil and gas prices, while the company’s nine-month crude output, refinery runs and domestic diesel sales all fell. Net profit for the July-September period reached 51.84 billion yuan ($7.78 billion), up from 42.29 billion yuan a year earlier, Asia’s largest oil and gas producer said in a stock filing on Wednesday.

Net profit for the first nine months rose 21.9% to 155.78 billion yuan, and revenue rose 7% to 2.32 trillion yuan. PetroChina posted a record first-half profit of 103.94 billion yuan in August, the first time its half-year profit topped 100 billion yuan. Trade sources expect its trading arm to book a record trading profit this year, as the Hormuz disruption created volatility and arbitrage opportunities in crude and LNG.

Crude output fell 2.2% in the first nine months to 698.6 million barrels, or 2.56 million barrels per day, of which 590.4 million barrels came from Chinese fields. Refinery throughput fell 3.7% to 3.67 million bpd. Combined sales of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel fell 5.1% to 114.66 million tons, and domestic sales fell 5.7% to 84.52 million tons. Domestic diesel sales dropped 8.2%, gasoline fell 4.3%, and jet fuel rose 1.1%.

In 2025, electric heavy trucks accounted for 28% of Chinese heavy-truck sales, up from 13% in 2024, and electric cars took almost 55% of new-car sales. The International Energy Agency (IEA) now expects EVs to displace more than 4 million barrels per day of Chinese oil demand by 2035.

PetroChina’s gas and chemicals businesses continued to grow during the period, with marketable gas output rising 2.3% to 4,069.4 billion cubic feet, and domestic gas sales rising 1% to 178.7 billion cubic meters. Ethylene output rose 26.4% to 8.46 million tons. The company cut nine-month capital spending to 159.4 billion yuan from 177.5 billion yuan a year earlier.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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