BEIJING (Commodity Online) : China's largest oil producer, PetroChina Co Ltd said Friday it plans to earmark $60 billion to increase its overseas oil and natural gas output.

In a statement, the company said it aimed to increase the output to 200 million tons per year, or equivalent to 4 million barrels output per day.

PetroChina also plans to buy majority overseas assets of its parent, China National Petroleum Corp.

In addition, PetroChina plans to build a refinery in Syria. It will have a refining capacity of 5 million tons per year, or 100,000 barrels per day.

PetroChina's net income was RMB 32.49 billion in the first quarter of this year, up 71% from the RMB 18.97 billion a year earlier.

Revenue rose 75% year on year to RMB 318.8 billion. PetroChina also reported a 16.5% growth in natural gas output to 609.9 billion cubic feet,

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