PETROCHINA Co. shares plunged Friday, after the Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed energy giant posted its first quarterly loss since its listing in Hong Kong 16 years ago.

    The Beijing-based firm’s weak profit report came as it struggled with the weak domestic economy and lower international oil prices.

    PetroChina lost 13.79 billion yuan (US$2.14 billion) in the first quarter, reversing from a gain of 6.15 billion yuan for the same period a year ago.

    It was the first quarterly loss by PetroChina since it listed in Hong Kong in 2000, Bloomberg reported.

    “In the first quarter of 2016, the world economy recovered weakly and geopolitics continued to be turbulent,” PetroChina said in its earnings report.

    “International oil prices continued to fluctuate at a low level.”

    At the same time, China’s economic growth slowed to 6.7 percent in the first quarter, its weakest quarterly expansion in seven years.

    “An oil price rebound will help moving forward, but PetroChina just simply needs to do an awful lot more to improve the competitiveness and performance of the company,” said Neil Beveridge, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

    PetroChina pumped 242.7 million barrels of crude oil in the first quarter, up 1.4 percent up from the year-ago period, the firm said.

    Another Chinese energy giant, Sinopec, reported Thursday a 206.8 percent surge in net profit to 6.66 billion yuan for the first quarter, even though its crude oil production fell 9.29 percent year on year to 79.42 million barrels in the period. (SD-Agencies)