The company posted what would usually be considered stellar half-year earnings late Thursday, with net income up 114% from a year earlier to 27 billion yuan ($4 billion), the highest level since 2014. Still, its shares sold off nearly 4% in Hong Kong on Friday. One explanation could be that what PetroChina—the listed part of China’s largest state-owned oil and natural-gas producer—is doing well, its two big state-owned rivals are doing even better. Sinopec, China’s refining heavyweight, posted its best ever half-year results earlier this month. And both Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corp. raised dividends by a higher percentage than their larger rival. PetroChina has other, more structural problems. China’s demand for clean-burning natural gas, particularly during the smoggy winter, is rising quickly—thanks to quality-of-life concerns raised by President Xi Jinping at the previous Communist Party congress . That would be great news for PetroChina and its […]