China’s biggest producer able to overcome first-quarter loss Total oil and gas output slipped 1.3% from second half of 2015 PetroChina Co., the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, posted its smallest half-year profit since it was publicly listed in 2000 as the crash in oil prices continues to drag on earnings. Net income dropped 98 percent to 531 million yuan ($80 million), the state-run explorer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday. Revenue fell 15.8 percent to 739 billion yuan. The company was able to eke out a profit after recovering from its first-ever quarterly loss earlier this year. “Low crude price is a killer for companies like PetroChina as they pretty much rely on oil incomes to make a living,” Tian Miao, a Beijing-based analyst at North Square Blue Oak Ltd. by phone.“The performance is not unexpected and what they do in […]