The China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) Ltd. forecast a substantial loss for the first half of 2016 on Thursday.
According to a preliminary estimation, the net loss attributable to equity shareholders could be about 8 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) from January to June, CNOOC said in a profit warning announcement.
The largest offshore oil and gas producer in China attributed the expected loss mainly to the further decline in crude oil prices compared with the same period last year.
The loss was also caused by "the impairment and provision recognized to reduce the carrying amount of certain oil and gas properties [...] to the recoverable amount."
CNOOC posted a net profit attributable to equity shareholders of 14.733 billion yuan in the first half of 2015, and its net profit for the whole year was 20.246 billion yuan, down 66.4 percent over the previous year.
