PetroChina plans to boost renewables output, posts biggest profit in 7 years

[BEIJING] China's largest oil and gas producer, PetroChina, said on Thursday (Mar 31) it aimed to have renewable energies make up one third of its energy portfolio by 2035 and 50 per cent by 2050.

Emissions of greenhouse gases were 159.54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2021, down 4.7 per cent from a year ago.

PetroChina has aimed to bring its carbon emissions to a peak by around 2025 and reach near zero emissions by 2050, ahead of China's national target of peaking carbon by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

It also plans to raise the output of natural gas, a bridge fuel in the energy transition, to account for 55 per cent of its total oil and gas production by 2025, up from current 51.6 per cent, said Dai Houliang, chairman of PetroChina.

The firm earlier on Thursday reported a net profit of 92.17 billion yuan (S$19.7 billion) for 2021, the biggest since 2014 and nearly 5 times that of last year's level, thanks to a global economic recovery that lifted energy prices and consumption.

PetroChina expects to reduce capital expenditure to 242 billion yuan this year, 3.6 per cent below 2021, with cuts mainly in the refining and chemicals sector.

Meantime, the company will raise spending on exploration and production by 1.6 per cent to 181.2 billion yuan, to boost production at key domestic basins including Songliao, Ordos, Junggar and Tarim, and devote more effort to explore shale gas and shale oil.

A slew of new discoveries helped lift PetroChina's crude oil reserve replacement ratio to a record 221 per cent last year.

PetroChina aims to produce 898.6 million barrels of crude oil and 4,625 billion cubic feet of natural gas this year, up 1.2 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively from last year's levels.

Its natural gas import business recorded 7.2 billion yuan of losses last year, 6.9 billion yuan less than 2020, thanks to lower import costs and an additional 5 billion yuan of government tax rebates, said chief financial officer Chai Shouping.

Officials, however, sidestepped a question during the conference call about the impact of the Ukraine crisis on PetroChina's investment in Russia, where the firm owns stakes at 2 liquefied natural gas development projects in the Russian Arctic. REUTERS