October 21 -- PetroChina (601857.SH) said the loss from its oil refinery business this year may top 50 billion yuan if the price of refined oil products stays at the same level till the end of the year, reports Shanghai Securities News.

According to PetroChina, it would have to pay an additional 29 billion yuan of resources tax annually, should oil prices stay at around $100 per barrel.

The chairman of PetroChina, Jiang Jiemin, said PetroChina supports the reform of the refined oil pricing mechanism, and said conditions are currently not appropriate for enterprises to set the prices.

The priority would be to perfect the existing pricing mechanism of refined oil and strengthen the execution of the mechanism, added Jiang.

PetroChina lost 23.36 billion yuan from its refinery business in the first half. During the same period of last year, it earned a profit of 2.99 billion yuan from this business.