PetroChina, CNOOC to earn more
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-11-24 09:38

Credit Suisse First Boston has raised earnings estimates for Chinese oil and gas producers PetroChina Co. and CNOOC Ltd. after increasing its predictions for oil prices in the next three years.

The global brokerage raised its forecast for crude oil prices through 2007 on expectations of continuing demand growth. It increased its estimate for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark oil grade, in 2005 by 19 percent to US$43 a barrel. It also boosted its 2006 target by 12 percent to US$38 a barrel and 2007 by 4 percent to US$33 a barrel.

“Demand is the marginal driver of oil prices,” its analysts Prashant Gokhale and Edwin Pang wrote in an investment note.

Demand “will still be likely above average in 2005,” they said.

PetroChina, China’s top oil producer, had its 2004 net income prediction increased by 5 percent to 98.29 billion yuan (US$11.9 billion) and 2005 prediction by 22 percent to 104.84 billion yuan, the analysts said.

Meanwhile, CNOOC, the country’s largest offshore oil and gas producer, had its 2004 net income prediction increased by 11 percent to 16.86 billion yuan and 2005 prediction by 32 percent to 21.3 billion yuan.

PetroChina, listed in Hong Kong and New York in April 2000, reported a net income of US$8.38 billion, up 48.4 percent over the year-earlier period. Meanwhile, CNOOC, listed in Hong Kong and New York in February 2001, posted a net income of US$1.45 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 33 percent.

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