Chinese oil giant PetroChina reported an 81% rise in fourth-quarter net profit today, beating forecasts on the back of strong crude oil prices and robust domestic economic growth.
Benchmark US crude prices rose about 12% in the fourth quarter from the third quarter, boosting the earnings of PetroChina and other global oil majors such as ExxonMobil and Chevron.
PetroChina, the country's dominant crude oil producer, posted a fourth-quarter net profit of 39.96 billion yuan ($6.08 billion), based on Reuters' calculations.
It beat a consensus forecast of 33.3 billion yuan from 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"PetroChina's fourth-quarter net profit is quite good, higher than expected," said Gordon Kwan, head of energy research at Mirae Asset Securities to Reuters.
For the full year, the state-run energy giant posted a net profit of 139.99 billion yuan, versus 103.4 billion yuan in 2009.
The company said in a statement that it expected higher energy demand this year as the global economy recovered, but the prospect for oil prices remained uncertain.
"Factors like geopolitics and speculative trade could distort demand and supply patterns and bring major uncertainty to oil price trends," it said.
PetroChina forecast 2011 capital expenditure to reach 350.6 billion yuan, up 27% from 276.1 billion yuan in 2010.
Shares of PetroChina ended down 0.8% on Thursday ahead of the results, versus a 1.83% fall by the benchmark Hang Seng Index .
The stock has gained 3% this year, outperforming a 3% loss by Hang Seng Index.
