UPDATE 2-PetroChina unsure of more crude import tax rebates

(Write through, adds comments on capital expenditure, Sichuan refinery and windfall tax)

By Jim Bai

BEIJING, July 31 (Reuters) - PetroChina (0857.HK) said it has not received any official word whether a rebate of 13 percent of value-added tax for crude imports -- started in April to help ease refining losses -- will be extended to the third quarter.

It also said that while refining losses meant it would cut spending on non-core operations, investment in oil and gas would be maintained next year at 2008 levels or more.

"An extension would be a good news for our refining business and for the company as a whole," Chairman Jiang Jiemin said on Thursday on the sidelines of a company meeting.

"We have received notice only effective until the end of the second quarter, we do not know whether the policy will be extended or halted in the third quarter or even later."

PetroChina, which suffers refining losses due to soaring crude costs and state-set fuel price caps, reported a 31.5 percent decline in first-quarter earnings to 28.9 billion yuan ($4.2 billion).

Jiang did not comment how much government subsidy the refiner has received.

Rival state giant Sinopec Corp (0386.HK)(600028.SS), Asia's top refiner by capacity, was granted a subsidy close to $4.4 billion to compensate for its huge refining losses in the first half of year, industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

PetroChina (601857.SS)(PTR.N), China's second-largest state refiner, will import a total of around 33 million tonnes of crude oil this year, or 660,000 barrels per day, according to Jiang.

The daily import rate is equivalent to about 18 percent of China's total crude oil imports recorded for the first half of this year. Jiang did not provide a comparative figure.

STEADY CAPITAL EXPENDITURE

PetroChina has no plan to cut its capital expenditure on oil and gas businesses even though refining losses have cut into its bottom line, President Zhou Jiping said.

"We will focus on oil and gas, maintaining investments in the sector in 2009 no less than this year's level, though we have cut expenditures on non-core businesses by 20.7 billion this year," Zhou said.

He also said PetroChina will not consolidate its overseas oil and gas blocks in the near term, saying "overseas busineses in general are good, and there is no need to sell any of them because of bad operations".

PetroChina has oil and gas businesses in a variety of countries, but politically sensitive interests, including those in Sudan, are operated by parent China National Petroleum Corp, or CNPC.

PetroChina now holds 11.7 billion barrels of extractable oil reserves and 5.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas deposits, according to Zhou. He did not elaborate if the reserves include its overseas interests or whether the gauges are the same as those used by international companies.

SICHUAN REFINERY UNDECIDED

PetroChina has not decided whether it will push forward its plan to build a 200,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery and an accompanying ethylene plant in southwestern Sichuan province after a devastating earthquake that hit the province on May 12 claimed over 80,000 lives.

"Initial reports showed that the earthquake had no material impact on the project and its location, but PetroChina will not start construction before a thorough review is completed," Jiang said.

China's National Development and Reform Commission approved the refinery plan in April, the first major refining project in the southwestern part of China.

Elsewhere, PetroChina is still in contact with relevant government bodies as to whether and how a windfall tax on crude oil production could be changed.

Introduced in 2006, the levy covers all oil produced in China and sold for more than $40 a barrel, and is charged on a sliding scale of 20 to 40 percent.

"The levy would not matter if fuel prices were deregulated," Jiang said. (Writing by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Michael Urquhart)