(Yicai Global) April 21 -- China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s stock shot up to the exchange-imposed limit for new listings of 44 percent on its first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange today, causing trading to be halted for half an hour, as the Chinese offshore oil giant’s stock proves to be a hot pick amid surging global oil prices.

CNOOC’s share price [SHA:600938] surged 43.9 percent to hit CNY15.55 (USD2.41) after market opening. It closed up 27.5 percent at HKD13.79 (USD1.76). However, CNY242 million (USD37.6 million) worth of the newly-issued shares remains unpaid.

CNOOC put 2.6 billion shares, around 5.5 percent of the firm’s total share capital, on sale at a price of CNY10.80 (USD1.68) each raising CNY28 billion (USD4.3 billion). Should it exercise the greenshoe option, which allows underwriters to allocate an additional 15 percent of shares at the same offering price for 30 days after the date of listing, the firm could rake in as much as CNY32.3 billion (USD5 billion).

The proceeds will be used to fund several oil and gas field development projects that will greatly boost its oil and gas reserves and output, the Beijing-based company said earlier. The rest will be used to supplement working capital.

CNOOC’s net profit could reach CNY114.7 billion (USD17.8 billion) this year, a 63 percent jump from last year’s record profit, TF Securities said. This would give it a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.5 if the greenshoe option is not exercised.

CNOOC posted all-time-high profit of CNY70.3 billion (USD11 billion) for 2021, a more than two-and-a-half time surge from the year before, on record output and surging international oil prices, according to its latest earnings report released last month. Revenue jumped 58.4 percent to CNY246.1 billion (USD38.7 billion).

The company’s production of crude oil and natural gas climbed 8.5 percent last year from the year before to 573 million barrels of oil equivalent, the most ever. The average price of oil surged 65.7 percent from a year earlier to USD67.89 per barrel and that of natural gas soared 12.6 percent to USD6.95 per kilo cubic feet.

In the first quarter, CNOOC is expecting profit to jump as much as 89 percent from the same period last year to CNY28 billion (USD4.4 billion) while revenue could leap up to 58 percent to CNY83 billion.

CNOOC now joins the two other Chinese state-owned oil and gas giants, namely China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, also known as Sinopec, and PetroChina, on the Shanghai bourse. Sinopec and PetroChina went public in August 2001 and November 2007 respectively.

Editor: Kim Taylor