HONG KONG: PetroChina Co., the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, posted a 77 per cent decline in third-quarter profit amid crude’s sustained slump.

Net income fell to 1.2 billion yuan ($177 million) in the July-September period, the Beijing-based company said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange on Friday. Revenue fell 3.8 per cent to 411.4 billion yuan.

The state-owned company dominates the oil and gas industry of the world’s largest energy consumer. It pumps more crude than its domestic rivals, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. and CNOOC Ltd., and is the country’s second-biggest refiner. It imports the bulk of its natural gas and operates a pipeline system that stretches from China’s western borders with Central Asian nations to the population centers along the east coast.

PetroChina, which posted its first-ever quarterly loss in the January-March period this year, barely managed to break even in the first half even after booking a 24.5 billion yuan one-off gain from pipeline sales.

Brent oil, the global oil benchmark, averaged about $47 a barrel during the third quarter, down roughly 8 per cent from the same period a year ago. The explorer in August cut its domestic crude output target for this year to 103 million tons, from 106 million tons set at the beginning of the year, as it shut some high-cost fields.

China’s total crude production fell 6.1 per cent in the first nine months of the year, helping spur record-high imports as the country’s reliance on overseas supply rises. Output by the world’s biggest consumer after the US will stabilise with prices around $50 a barrel and may not rebound until they are above $60, Neil Beveridge, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said earlier this month.

As the country’s largest gas producer and distributor, the company is vulnerable to changes in government-set gas prices. The administration of President Xi Jinping cut prices twice last year in an effort to boost consumption, most-recently in November when they were lowered by roughly one-quarter.

PetroChina shares fell 0.6 per cent to HK$5.38 before the release of its earnings. The stock has gained 5.9 per cent this year, compared with a 4.8 per cent rise in the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index.

China Petroleum, known as Sinopec, said Thursday that third-quarter profit rose sixfold to 10.2 billion yuan as refining gains helped overcome deepening losses from oil and gas production. CNOOC, China’s biggest offshore oil and gas producer, reported Wednesday a 15 per cent fall in third-quarter sales as output and capital spending declined.