PetroChina Company Limited ADR (PTR)

[Timothy Smith]

PetroChina (NYSE:PTR) says it plans to sell a 50% stake in a pipeline company for as much as 15.5B yuan ($2.4B), as parent company China National Petroleum seeks to complete asset sales before year-end to meet government-set annual profit goals.

The decision comes as China’s oil companies try to shore up their balance sheets amid lower oil and gas prices that have weighed heavily on earnings this year; it also marks the start of long-awaited industry reforms that aim to make China’s energy giants leaner and more profitable through divestment of pipeline and potentially other assets.

PTR also discloses the resignation of CFO Yu Yibo, to be replaced by Zhao Dong, who ran a unit of CNPC.