(Yicai Global) March 22 -- The listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum has increased its gains as expected on the back of inflating energy prices. 

PetroChina's net profit more than doubled last year to CNY52.6 billion (USD7.9 billion), the Beijing-based company said in its earnings report that was published yesterday. The firm's revenue rose nearly 17 percent to CNY2.4 trillion (USD351.7 billion). 

The price of crude oil jumped over 34 percent to a bit more than CNY3,210 (USD480) per ton, while the price hike for liquified natural gas was almost 11 percent to nearly CNY1,370 per ton. The price of gasoline rose 10 percent to slightly more than CNY7,020 per ton and that of diesel climbed 19 percent. 

PetroChina believes that the world economy will recover slowly and that global oil prices may fluctuate sharply, the firm said in the report. China's economy will develop at a reasonable pace, and its demand particularly for LNG will grow rapidly, the report added. 

The firm's total gas and oil production increased over 2 percent to 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent last year. It produced 890 million barrels of crude oil, up less than 1 percent annually. Its output of saleable natural gas advanced 5 percent to 3.6 trillion cubic feet.

PetroChina plans to boost its production this year with 905.9 million barrels of crude oil as well as 3.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which equals to 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent. It expects to process 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil.

PetroChina's stock [SHA: 601857] has declined over 1 percent to CNY7.74 (USD1.20) by lunch. 

Editor: Emmi Laine