PetroChina’s Unexpected Net Rise Beats Sinopec on Oil Output

PetroChina Co.’s first-quarter profit rose unexpectedly after it ramped up oil and gas production, while China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s earnings slumped on losses from selling fuels at state-controlled prices.

Net income rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier to 39.2 billion yuan ($6.2 billion), PetroChina reported yesterday, beating the 34.8 billion yuan mean estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Profit at Sinopec, as China Petroleum is known, slumped 35 percent, almost triple the pace forecast by analysts.