PetroChina witnessed its core upstream and downstream businesses progress on track during the first half of this year, according to information released by the country's top oil and gas producer yesterday .

"Key operational data released by PetroChina is almost all in line with its original plan, despite the fact its natural gas production falls a little bit short of the market expectation," said Liu Gu, a senior energy analyst withGuotai Jun'an Securities.

"But that will not affect PetroChina's business operation as a whole from January to June, because the firm's other operational data looks satisfactory," Liu added.

In the first six months of 2007, PetroChina's crude oil output reached 419 million barrels, a year-on-year increase of 0.6 million barrels, or 0.1 percent. Output of marketable natural gas hit 798 billion cubic feet, an increase of 113.3 billion cubic feet, or 16.5 percent over the same period last year.

PetroChina finished construction of facilities and brought onstream the Tarim Yingmaili Gasfield during the six-month period, furthering its efforts in securing a stable gas supply to the West-East Gas Pipeline Project, according to the PetroChina statement.

The company's exploration efforts in the first six months included the discovery of the Jidong Nanpu Oilfield in Bohai Bay, which contains oil reserves of up to 1 billion tons. It also made exploration progress in Erdos, Songliao, Junggar as well as in the Sichuan Basin. The results helped for a favorable outlook in growth in PetroChina's oil reserves and further secured its oil and gas resources, the firm said.

Since most of PetroChina's oil and gas production is destined for its own downstream business, soaring global oil prices will not dampen profitability prospects of its refinery and petrochemical business in the second quarter, Liu contended.

During the first half of the year, PetroChina processed 407 million barrels of crude, up 3.8 percent year-on-year.

(China Daily 07/17/2007 page13)