Petrochina trying to cut impact of China's petchem import duties amid trade war

Petrochina, China's largest oil and gas producer, is trying to reduce the impact of import tariffs on US petrochemicals imposed by Beijing earlier this month, Zhang Jianhua, president and vice chairman, said on Thursday.

His comment comes after Beijing imposed additional duties on $16 billion of goods imported from the United States, including plastics and rubber, on August 23, amid an escalating trade dispute between the world's two largest economies. The two countries also introduced tariffs on $34 billion of each other's goods in July.

He described the impact from the tariffs as "not negligible" but did not say what measures the company was taking to mitigate the effects.

Slides in a presentation following the release of results showed the company expects 2018 oil output of 872.2 million barrels, crude processing volume of 1.123 billion barrels and oil and gas equivalent output of 1.462 billion barrels.

Full-year capital expenditure will be 233 billion yuan ($34.11 billion), according to the presentation.

Zhang said natural gas output is expected to rise by 4 percent in 2018 and by 4 percent to 5 percent each year for the following years.

Earlier, the company reported its best quarterly profit since the second quarter of 2015, boosted by higher oil prices.

($1 = 6.8306 Chinese yuan)