BEIJING: China Gas Holdings Ltd reported a 16.2 per cent rise in mid-year profit to 4.91 billion Hong Kong dollars ($627 million) as Beijing’s anti-pollution campaign helped boost gas demand.
China’s largest independent city-gas distributor by market capitalisation saw a 3.3 per cent fall in revenue to 27.93 billion dollars for the six months to September 30, it said in a statement filed to Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Results were hurt by trading in liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), China Gas said.
Still, natural gas sales rose 7.8 per cent to 11.84 billion cubic metres and it posted a 15.8 per cent rise in new residential users, adding 2.93 million households.
Since 2017 the government has been pushing households in northern China to switch to gas- or electricity-fired heating from coal-burning units in a bid to curb air pollution.
China Gas Holdings has partnered with PetroChina’s Kunlun Energy to connect thousands of households in northeastern provinces to a Russia-China gas pipeline due to launch in early December. — Reuters
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