, Columnist
In China, It's a Gas
The company's buccaneering days on the high seas of the oil market are fading.
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You think Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which paid $54 billion to buy gas producer BG Group Plc, is Big Oil's biggest advocate of a shift to lighter hydrocarbons. Think again: PetroChina Co., China's biggest oil producer, is also turning its back on the black stuff in favor of natural gas production, going by first-half results.
Crude oil output fell 7.4 percent from a year earlier, the Beijing-based company said late Thursday, while natural gas production was up 4.4 percent. Crude came to just 60 percent of total oil-equivalent production, versus more than 90 percent at the time of PetroChina's 2000 initial public offering.