(Oilvoice.com, Oct 30, 2006) PetroChina Company Limited reports that its business operations continued to advance ahead in a smooth manner in the third quarter of 2006, with key operational indicators improving steadily from those of the corresponding period last year.

In the third quarter of 2006, PetroChina prevailed over the impact of floodings that took place in some oil fields and achieved stable operation as planned. The Company's crude oil output reached 207 million barrels. Natural gas production was carried out with the aim of achieving planned safe and stable supply. Output of natural gas in four key gas production regions including Tarim, Changqing, Qinghai and Southwest increased further, with the total output of marketable natural gas reaching 322.4 billion cubic feet. For the period from January to September this year, the Company saw relatively rapid growth in its oil and gas production as its accumulated total output amounted to 793 million barrels of oil equivalent, representing an increase of 43.4 million barrels, or 5.8 percent, from the same period in 2005. Of this, accumulated crude oil output reached 626 million barrels, representing an increase of 1 percent from the same period last year, and accumulated output of marketable natural gas stood at 1,007.1 billion cubic feet, representing an increase of 28.4 percent from the same period in 2005.

In the third quarter of 2006, PetroChina continued to achieve growth in its crude oil refining volume compared with the corresponding period the previous year, as the Company spared no effort to run its refining facilities at full capacity whilst ensuring production safety and further optimizing its resources allocation. The Company processed 188 million barrels of crude oil, as well as produced 5.18 million tons of gasoline, 10.679 million tons of diesel and 0.544 million tons of kerosene. For the period from January to September this year, the Company processed a total of 581 million barrels of crude oil, representing a growth of 17.9 million barrels, or 3.2 percent, from the same period in 2005. At the same time, the Company further improved the quality of its refined products and continuously optimized its product mix. For the period from January to September this year, the output of high-grade gasoline increased by nearly one million tons compared to the same period the previous year.

The building of marketing network of the Company achieved new progress in the third quarter of 2006. The Company expanded large scale and profitable wholly-owned service stations into major metropolitan areas as well as along highway routes. By the end of September, PetroChina's service stations totaled 17,934, representing an increase of 555 stations, or 3.19 percent, from the same period last year.

In the third quarter of 2006, the Company's chemical business attained pre-set production targets with the output of key chemical products increasing further. The Company produced 520,000 tons of ethylene, 728,000 tons of synthetic resin, and 77,000 tons of synthetic rubber. For the period from January to September this year, the output of high value-added products including ethylene increased at a faster rate, with the accumulated production volume reaching 1.523 million tons of ethylene, 2.253 million tons of synthetic resin, and 0.232 million tons of synthetic rubber. This represented an increase of 7 percent, 10.7 percent, and 11 percent, respectively from the same period last year.

In the third quarter, the construction of key projects for the chemicals segment also proceeded well. The Company's Tarim chemical fertilizer production project, which has a capacity of producing 450,000 tons of synthetic ammonia and 800,000 tons of urea per annum, as well as Fushun Petrochemical project, which would boost the annual ethylene production capacity of the facility to one million tons, broke ground in the third quarter of the year. Moreover, a number of core projects including that with an annual capacity of 200,000-ton polypropylene at Dalian Petrochemical Company and the one with an annual capacity of 300,000-ton methanol at Qinghai Oilfield Company have also completed construction and been brought into operations. This added to the strengths for further development of the Company's chemical business.

Furthermore, PetroChina made further development in its major pipeline projects in the third quarter of the year. Whilst the Alashankou-Dushanzi Crude Oil Pipeline started commercial operations during the quarter, the Urumqi-Lanzhou Refined Oil Product Pipeline in Western China has also been put into service. Additionally, the construction work of the Huai-Wu Connection Line linking to the West-East Gas Pipeline and Zhongxian-Wuhan Gas Pipeline advanced as planned. The Ji-Ning Connection Line of the Second Shaanxi-Beijing Gas Pipeline also commenced gas supply to the city of Jinan.

source:OilVoice.com