"Three Oil Giants" collectively see revenue and profit decline in 2025, yet still splurge 160 billion yuan on dividends

Ask AI · What are the main reasons for the performance divergence among the Three Big Oil companies?

With China National Petroleum Corporation’s (CNPC) disclosure of its annual report on the evening of March 29, the 2025 performance scorecards of the “Three Big Oil” companies have been fully released. Overall, CNPC, China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) combined to achieve attributable net profit of 311.193 billion yuan last year, with an estimated cumulative dividend payout of 165.176 billion yuan. Notably, last year the “Three Big Oil” companies saw year-on-year declines in both revenue performance and profitability.

Performance Trend Divergence

In 2025, affected by the decline in international oil prices, the “Three Big Oil” companies’ performance fell to varying degrees, and showed a further trend of divergence.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) achieved full-year operating revenue of 2.86 trillion yuan in 2025, down 2.5% year on year; attributable net profit of 157.302 billion yuan, down 4.48% year on year; and earned about 4.3 billion yuan in net profit per day. Among the “Three Big Oil” companies, CNPC (601857) has deployed a balanced layout across its entire industry chain, with coordination between upstream exploration and downstream refining and sales, making its performance the most steady.

CNPC said that, in the face of new circumstances, the company will continue to deepen efforts to increase oil and gas reserves and production, and to upgrade and transform refining and chemical engineering, to strengthen the foundation for the company’s development; it will also actively promote a green and low-carbon transformation, develop new productive forces in a way tailored to local conditions, support the high-quality and efficient development of emerging industries such as new energy and new materials, and focus on building new business growth drivers.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) achieved operating revenue of 2.78 trillion yuan in 2025, down 9.46% year on year; attributable net profit of 31.809 billion yuan, down 36.78% year on year; and it has experienced declines for four consecutive years. Sinopec’s downstream refining business has a relatively high share, and it was hit the hardest by oversupply in chemical capacity and weak demand, which compressed gross margins.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) had operating revenue of 398.22 billion yuan last year, down 5.3% year on year; and attributable net profit of 122.082 billion yuan, down 11.49%. CNOOC’s business is mainly oil and gas exploration and development. Its full-year net production of oil and gas totaled 777 million barrels, up 7% year on year, reaching a new high.

It is worth noting that although the “Three Big Oil” companies’ performance declined to varying degrees, they still maintained large-scale dividend payments, with a combined cash dividend payout of 165.176 billion yuan, rewarding investors.

Of this, including the interim dividend, CNPC’s full-year total dividend was 0.47 yuan per share (tax included). The total dividend amount was 86.02 billion yuan, the dividend payout ratio was 54.7%, and over the past three years cumulative dividends totaled 252.569 billion yuan.

Sinopec’s full-year dividend in 2025 was 0.20 yuan per share (tax included), with a total payout of 24.206 billion yuan. The full-year share repurchase and cancellation totaled 1.554 billion yuan, and the cash dividend payout ratio including the repurchases reached 81%, making it the highest among the “Three Big Oil” companies.

CNOOC’s full-year dividend in 2025 was 1.28 Hong Kong dollars per share (tax included). The total dividend payout was 60 billion Hong Kong dollars (approximately 54.95 billion yuan), and the dividend payout ratio was 45%.