China’s PetroChina first-half profit slid 6 %

China’s biggest oil and gas company PetroChina said first-half profit slid 6% on lower crude oil prices and continuing losses at its refining and chemicals operations. The world’s biggest publicly traded energy producer said Thursday that profit for the first six months of the year totaled 62 billion yuan ($9.7 billion), or 0.34 yuan (5.3 US cents) per share. That’s down from 66 billion yuan, or 0.36 yuan a share, in the same period last year. The majority state-owned company pumped 667.9 million barrels of oil and natural gas, up 3.8% over the year before. Some 62.5 million barrels came from overseas. PetroChina pumped 2.4 million barrels a day last year, overtaking Exxon Mobil as the biggest publicly traded oil producer. Almost all output is for domestic use.