PetroChina, the largest oil producer in China, saw first-half net profit for 2009 slide 7.2 percent year-on-year, due to low price of crude oil and decreased demand, but net profit in the second quarter jumped 66.4 percent, said the company's President Zhou Jiping Friday.

In the first six months of the year, net profit of the company totaled 50.501 billion yuan, with earnings per share falling 0.02 yuan to 0.28 yuan.

Zhou also said the company would participate in the second round of oil bidding to be held by the Iraqi government to develop some of its oil and gas fields.

He added that some international oil giant had talked with PetroChina on the cooperation for the second round bidding, without providing details.

Zhou said that PetroChina will look for more opportunities to acquire overseas oil refining assets.

Natural gas will become the emphasis for PetroChina's future development as the company plans to increase its natural gas output from the current 60 billion cubic meters to 130 billion in the next seven to eight years, he said.

PetroChina and Russia's Gazprom have been authorized by both governments to talk about China's imports of natural gas from Russia, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2009)