China National Offshore Oil Corporation's (0883) net profit for the first three quarters dropped 10.2 percent year-on-year to 97.6 billion yuan (HK$106.2 billion).
Oil and gas sales for the first three quarters fell by 10.3 percent to 238.4 billion yuan from a year earlier, mainly due to the increase in production partially offsetting the decline in international oil prices.
The company's total net production achieved 499.7 million barrels of oil equivalent for the first three quarters, up by 8.3 percent.
Its capital expenditure for the period saw a 30.2 percent jump to 89.5 billion yuan, driven by a rising workload of projects under construction.
Wang Xin, chief financial officer of CNOOC, said that capital expenditure is likely to remain strong in the future regarding oilfield adjustment and development to support an increase in oil production.
Separately, Chevron has agreed to buy Hess for US$53 billion (HK$413.4 billion) in stock to gain a bigger US oil footprint and a stake in rival Exxon Mobil's massive Guyana discoveries, the latest in a series of blockbuster US oil mergers.
World fossil fuel demand is set to peak by 2030 as more electric cars hit the road and China's economy grows more slowly and shifts towards cleaner energy, the International Energy Agency said, undercutting the rationale for any rise in investment.
