China’s Cnooc posts first-ever half-year loss

HONG KONG: Cnooc Ltd posted its first-ever half-year loss as crude’s plunge and writedowns on assets, including Canadian oil sands, destroyed profit at China’s biggest offshore oil and gas producer.

The company swung to a 7.74 billion yuan (US$1.16bil) loss in the January to June period, compared with a net income of 14.7 billion yuan a year earlier, the Beijing-based explorer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Oil and gas revenue fell 28.5% to 55.08 billion yuan.