PetroChina, a state-owned oil company and the country's largest oil producer, saw a decline in its profits during the first quarter of the year.

The company's net loss totaled to 13.79 billion ($2.13 billion), while it only lost 6.15 billion yuan in the same period last year. Its annual net profit in 2015 was 35.52 billion yuan, a 70-percent fall from its 2014 profits.

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Its revenue fell by 14 percent to 352.8 billion yuan, while capital spending dwindled by 6 percent to only 50.5 billion yuan.  Capital expenditure also ebbed by 5 percent to 192 billion yuan.

Its domestic realized price for crude oil stood at $26.55 per barrel, a 44.2 percent drop year-on-year, while the average realized price for crude oil was at $27.27 per barrel. The company estimates its total crude output this year to reach 924l7 million barrels.

"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.

"Gains in refining and chemical weren't enough to offset weaker oil prices, which dragged exploration and production into losses. Ample gas supply this year may encourage a gas price cut in the second half of the year, which is likely to be the biggest headwind for PetroChina," said Bloomberg analyst Lu Wang.

PetroChina said that the recovery of international oil prices and domestic refined oil market will help the company's performance in the following quarters.  

TagsOil prices, commodities, PetroChina