PetroChina Half-Year Profit Tops RMB 100 Billion for First Time, Up 22%

PetroChina Co Ltd reported profit attributable to owners of RMB 103.94 billion for the first half of 2026, the first time the company has cleared RMB 100 billion in a half-year period, and a year-on-year increase of 22.0%. The results were announced on August 30, 2026.

Revenue rose far more slowly. Sales reached RMB 1,527.49 billion, up 5.3% year on year, meaning earnings grew roughly four times faster than the top line. Basic earnings per share came in at RMB 0.57.

Upstream carried the result. The oil, gas and new energies business posted an operating profit of RMB 100.45 billion, close to the entire group figure attributable to owners. Oil and gas equivalent output reached 921 million barrels, with domestic crude output of 393 million barrels and marketable natural gas output of 2.66 trillion cubic feet.

Exploration added 6 new discoveries and 19 new developments across conventional and unconventional plays.

Downstream contributed a fraction of upstream's earnings. The refining, chemicals and new materials business realized an operating profit of RMB 14.53 billion. The company processed 655.0 million barrels of crude oil and produced 54.35 million tons of refined products.

Chemical volumes grew faster than fuels. Chemical commodity products reached 21.32 million tons, up 6.7%, while both ethylene and paraxylene output set records for a comparable period. New materials output hit 2.69 million tons, up 61.4%, holding growth of around 50% for five consecutive years.

Gas marketing sold 161.22 billion cubic meters of natural gas, including LNG, up 3.9%, of which 124.89 billion cubic meters were sold in China, up 1.1%. That business generated an operating profit of RMB 24.09 billion, more than the refining and chemicals segment.

The marketing segment reported an operating profit of RMB 11.36 billion. Retail expansion tilted toward fuels beyond gasoline and diesel: 592 integrated energy stations were newly established, 208 LNG refueling stations entered operation, and 18,500 charging guns were built.

Low-carbon volumes remain small against the hydrocarbon base but are rising quickly. Wind and solar generation reached 5.07 billion kWh, up 37.3%, and new geothermal heating contracts covered an area exceeding 60 million square meters. Carbon injection reached 1.37 million tons of CO2, up 14.2%, under the company's carbon capture, utilization and storage activity.

For global investors, the split between segments is the substance of the release. With upstream producing RMB 100.45 billion of operating profit against RMB 14.53 billion from refining, chemicals and new materials, and RMB 24.09 billion from gas sales, group earnings track production and gas margins rather than fuel demand at the pump.

The gap between 5.3% revenue growth and 22.0% profit growth is the other marker worth holding onto: volume gains alone do not explain the earnings step, and the company cleared the RMB 100 billion half-year threshold without a proportional expansion in sales.

PetroChina is listed in Hong Kong under 00857 and in Shanghai under 601857.