CNOOC’s 1st half profit more than triples

China’s top offshore oil and gas driller CNOOC Ltd said on Thursday its first-half net profit more than tripled from a low base last year, supported by rebounding oil prices and recovering energy demand after the pandemic.

CNOOC Ltd, a listed branch of China National Offshore Oil Crop, said net profit reached 33.33 billion yuan ($5.13 billion), up 221 per cent from a year ago and from 25.48 billion yuan in 2019. It was the highest profit since the first half of 2014.

Revenue in the first half of 2021 jumped 48 per cent from a year earlier to 110.23 billion yuan, following a 52 per cent rise in oil and gas sales.

Benchmark WTI prices, which plunged to below zero at one point in April last year, hovered near $70 a barrel in the second quarter of 2021. CNOOC, one of the industry’s lowest-cost explorers and producers, said its all-in production cost was $28.98 per barrel, up from $26.34 in 2020, due to “rising commodity prices and other factors”.