HONG KONG -- China's major state oil companies are keeping up their dividend payments despite incurring large losses as the coronavirus pandemic undercut the prices and sale of their products.
For China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) and PetroChina, the net losses -- a combined 52.86 billion yuan ($7.72 billion) for the first half of 2020 -- are their first as listed companies and compare with posted profits of 59.76 billion yuan a year earlier.