PetroChina Company Limited announced Monday that during the first three quarters of 2005 it saw a total output of 722 million barrels of oil equivalent, an increase of 36.3 million barrels or 5.3 percent year on year.

In the third quarter of 2005, the Company continued to increase crude oil and natural gas production, with crude oil output reaching 198 million barrels and marketable natural gas output achieving 257 billion cubic feet.

In the first three quarters, the Company saw its crude oil output amount to an accumulated 595 million barrels, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.7 percent, while the accumulated output of marketable natural gas reached 763.3 billion cubic feet, rising by 26.1 percent over the same period in 2004.

In the first three quarters, PetroChina's average realized price of crude oil reached US$47.35 per barrel, 50.08 percent higher than a year ago.

In the refining sector, PetroChina processed 184 million barrels of crude oil in the third quarter. It produced 5.21 million tons of gasoline, 10.687 million tons of diesel and 572,000 tons of kerosene.

During the first three quarters of 2005, the Company processed an accumulated 563 million barrels of crude oil, representing an increase of 35.30 million barrels or 6.7 percent over the same period of 2004.

Continuing to expand its sales network, PetroChina saw the number of its service stations reach 17,379 by the end of this September, 220 more than a year ago with a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percent.

In the third quarter of this year, PetroChina produced 482,000 tons of ethylene, 724,000 tons of synthetic resin, 67,000 tons of synthetic rubber, and 860,000 tons of urea.

During the first three quarters of 2005, the Company produced a total of 1.423 million tons of ethylene, increasing by 4 percent year on year, 2.035 million tons of synthetic resin, increasing by 7.6 percent and 2.817 million tons of urea with a year-on-year growth of 3.1 percent.

In the third quarter, PetroChina made smooth and rapid progress in scheduled building of key oil and gas pipelines. The Second Shaanxi-Beijing Pipeline began operation ahead of schedule on July 1. The line has a trunk length of 935 kilometers and a designed annual capacity of 12 billion cubic meters.

In addition, construction of the gas pipeline linking north China's Hebei Province to Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, a branch of the West-East Pipeline and the oil pipeline between the Alashankou Pass and the Dushanzi oil refinery in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are proceeding smoothly.

As the joint stock company of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil producer, PetroChina holds most of the assets and liabilities of the CNPC relating to its exploration and production, refining and marketing, chemicals and natural gas businesses.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2005)