China National Offshore Oil and Gas Corporation CNOOC Ltd. said on August 23 that its profit in the first half of 2018 increased 57% year-on-year due to rising crude oil prices and strong natural gas sales.

The net profit of the listed subsidiary of the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation for the first half of the year was RMB 25.48 billion (US$3.71 billion), the best half-year performance since the first half of 2015, and documents submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed.

CNOOC said its revenue from January to June increased to 105.65 billion yuan ($15.3 trillion) and oil and gas sales increased by more than 20%.

Despite the rebound in international oil prices and inflation costs, CNOOC stated in a document submitted on August 23 that all production costs were maintained at $31.83 per barrel.

However, total crude oil and natural gas production stagnated in the first half of the year.

Due to the aging of the Bohai Oilfield and the maintenance of two drilling vessels, crude oil production in domestic oilfields fell from 134 million barrels in the first half of 2017 to 128 million barrels (MMbbl).

“We sent two offshore drilling vessels for maintenance in the first half of the year, affecting 7 million barrels of oil production,” a CNOOC executive said at a profitable press conference on August 23. He said the company's goal is to produce 30 million tons of crude oil. One year comes from the Bohai Oilfield.

However, CNOOC said that compared with the same period in 2017, natural gas production increased by 11% in six months.

Although capital expenditures in the first half of the year were only 21 billion yuan, CNOOC maintained its full-year capital expenditures of 70 billion to 80 billion yuan. The company vowed to accelerate spending in the second half of the year.

The company said it issued an interim dividend of HK$0.3 per share. (1 US dollar = 6.8740 yuan)