PetroChina profit down 5 pct on oil, gas costs

Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — PetroChina, China's biggest oil and gas company, says profit fell 5 percent last year on soaring costs for imported crude oil and natural gas.

The Beijing-based company said Thursday profit fell to 133 billion yuan ($21 billion) in 2011, down from 140 billion yuan the year before.

The company's refining division posted a loss of 60.1 million yuan because of higher global crude prices. The higher cost of imported natural gas from Russia and Kazakhstan also ate into profit, as did sharp increases in a special levy on crude oil and a resource tax.

State-owned PetroChina said the amount of oil it pumped last year rose 3.3 percent to 886.1 million barrels of oil.

(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. Corrects currency conversion in paragraph 2)