State-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, may sell part of its pipeline, oil refinery or other assets to boost profits in the current year, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing an anonymous source.
CNPC is likely to announce the plan as early as this week, according to the unnamed person, who said the move aimed to allow the company to reach the profit target set by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.
However, CNPC said it had no relevant information to disclose when contacted by the Global Times Monday.
CNPC's listed unit, PetroChina Co, achieved 877.62 billion yuan ($137.35 billion) in turnover for the first half, down 23.9 percent year-on-year, with net profit of 25.41 billion yuan, down 62.7 percent, according to the company's interim statement released on August 27. PetroChina lost 7.2 billion yuan in the oil refining business in 2014, according to its 2014 annual report.
There have been previous rumors and media reports on adjustments to CNPC's oil and natural gas business.
CNPC is working on a plan to integrate its subsidiaries' natural gas pipelines into a single entity that would eventually be listed separately, the 21st Century Economic Herald newspaper reported on Friday, citing an anonymous source close to the matter.
In May, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government planned to separate the company's oil and natural gas pipeline transportation businesses to accelerate the market-driven reform of the oil and gas industry.
CNPC, the largest domestic pipeline owner, controls 77,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipelines. CNPC is also the major target of China's reform of the oil and gas industry.
