PetroChina aims to have oil, gas and green energies to each account for a third of its portfolio by 2035, it said on Thursday, as the Chinese oil major shifts toward a lower-carbon future.

For PetroChina, Asia's largest oil and gas producer, natural gas currently accounts for about 47 per cent of total output and oil the rest. It is at the early stages of developing renewables.

"Our capital spending will increase progressively on green energies," said chairman Dai Houliang.

In addition to expanding natural gas production, PetroChina is zeroing in on geothermal, solar and wind power, by adding renewable projects in 2021 with total capacity of 3.45 million tonnes of standard coal equivalent.

It also has 350,000 tonnes of standard coal equivalent projects under construction.

PetroChina posted an interim profit of 53.04 billion yuan ($8.18 billion) thanks to rising oil and gas prices and a recovery in Chinese fuel demand from the coronavirus pandemic slump.

That compared to a net loss of 29.98 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.

First-half revenue was up 29 per cent at 1.197 trillion yuan.

Oil and gas output dipped 1.7 per cent on-year to 819.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, with crude oil down 6.8 per cent but gas up 5.1 per cent.

Refinery throughput rose 6.7 per cent to about 3.35 million barrels per day and sales of gasoline, diesel and kerosene combined were up 4.9 per cent at 80.34 million tonnes.

Its domestic gas sales climbed 17.6 per cent to a record 96.25 billion cubic metres amid robust demand growth from industries and power plants under a consistent government push for less-polluting fuels. The firm sees China's gas demand to rise 7-9 per cent annually between 2021 and 2025 and that of refined fuel growing at 1.2 per cent per annum.

Capital expenditure totalled 73.9 billion yuan in the first half, 1.2 per cent below a year earlier and represented 31 per cent of annual budget for 2021.

Its Hong Kong listed shares have so far this year gained 31 per centversus a 7.5 per cent drop in benchmark Hang Seng index.

Source: ETEnergyworld