Cnooc first-half profit drops 56% on plunging crude prices

[HONG KONG] Cnooc Ltd, China's biggest offshore oil and gas explorer, posted a 56 per cent decline in profit for the first half of this year.

Net income dropped to 14.73 billion yuan (S$3.2 billion), or 0.33 yuan a share, from 33.59 billion yuan, or 0.75 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based explorer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange Wednesday. That exceeded the 13.9- billion yuan average of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

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