The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced yesterday it will review PetroChina Co Ltd's A-share initial public offering (IPO) plan next Monday, or September 24, the Shanghai Securities News reported today.

The company is one of the country's largest oil and gas producers.

The prospectus suggests that PetroChina plans to issue no more than 4 billion yuan-denominated A shares in Shanghai.

Judging from the HK$12.38 close of the company's Hong Kong-listed H shares yesterday, the IPO could raise roughly 50 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion).

Underwriters include CITIC Securities Co Ltd, China International Capital Corp and UBS Securities Co Ltd.

Money raised will be used for production expansion and technical reconstruction projects. Some 6.84 billion yuan, 5.93 billion yuan and 1.5 billion yuan will be used to construct Changqing, Daqing and Jidong oilfields respectively, in an effort to improve crude oil production, according to a report from the China Business News.

PetroChina will also invest 17.5 billion yuan of the total raised in the Duzishan oil refining project in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and 12 billion yuan in Daqing's ethylene plant expansion, the China Business News reported.

The American Depositary Shares and H shares of the company were listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on April 6, 2000 and April 7, 2000 respectively.

PetroChina's interim report shows that its net profit rose 1.4 percent to 81.83 billion yuan from the same period a year earlier with sales revenue growing 20.3 percent year on year to 392.73 billion yuan.

(China Daily September 21, 2007)