Kunlun's 1H Profit Up as Gas Sales Rise
Kunlun Energy, a gas distribution unit of state-owned PetroChina, August 28 reported 21.4% year on year increase in net profit for the January-June period (1H2018) thanks to higher gas sales volume.
Company’s net profit during the period was yuan 3.09bn ($450mn) compared with yuan 2.54bn in the year ago period. Revenue stood at yuan 49.6bn, representing an increase of 21.77% compared with the same period of last year.
Natural gas sales volume was 10.46bn m3, representing an increase of 18.62% year on year. In terms of city gas, sales volume was 7.18bn m3, up 29.86% compared with the same period of last year, Kunlun said, adding it is committed to the construction of branch pipelines to further drive sales to end users. The company has signed 11 project agreements to supply gas to markets along the Russia-China eastern route pipeline that is expected to be ready next year.
Regasification volume of Kunlun Energy’s three LNG terminals, Jiangsu, Jingtang and Dalian together was 8.3bn m3, up 76.31% year on year. LNG trucking volume amounted to 1.12bn m3, up 11.8% year on year, Kunlun said. The emergency buffer storage project of Jingtang terminal is expected to be ready by 2020 while expansion of Jiangsu terminal is likely to be complete by 2021.
Kunlun’s gas pipeline transmission volume during 1H2018 was 26.26nb m3, up 30.3% year on year thanks to start of the No.4 Shaanxi-Beijing Pipeline at the end of 2017, the company said.
Commenting on the business prospects, Kunlun said Chinese natural gas industry will continue to develop rapidly as government strives to increase the share of natural gas in the primary energy consumption to 10% in 2020. Kunlun said it will “actively promote the integrated implementation of LNG business, and further improve the loading and unloading capacity of LNG terminal. It will improve the capacity of the LNG processing plants.”