2021 will be a critical year for China’s NOCs
China’s NOCs look to the future
The three state-controlled heavyweights are gearing up to announce 2020 earnings, with attention focused on addressing near-term challenges and opportunities
Markets are optimistic about the financial performance of China’s ‘big three’ NOCs—PetroChina, Sinopec and Cnooc—given the continued recovery in both China’s oil and gas demand and international energy prices in the final quarter of 2020 compared with the lows seen earlier in the year. China’s crude consumption in the final three months of last year climbed to 14.9mn bl/d, unchanged from a year earlier but up by more than a quarter from Q1 2020, when mobility was severely curtailed by lockdowns, according to the IEA. China’s gas demand, meanwhile, surged in the year’s final quarter as a rebound in domestic industrial activity coincided with freezing weather that drove up heating requirements
Also in this section
5 December 2025
Mistaken assumptions around an oil bull run that never happened are a warning over the talk of a supply glut
4 December 2025
Time is running out for Lukoil and Rosneft to divest international assets that will be mostly rendered useless to them when the US sanctions deadline arrives in mid-December
3 December 2025
Aramco’s pursuit of $30b in US gas partnerships marks a strategic pivot. The US gains capital and certainty; Saudi Arabia gains access, flexibility and a new export future
2 December 2025
The interplay between OPEC+, China and the US will define oil markets throughout 2026
