China Oil Giant Has Lost $34 Billion to Help Its People Breathe

Death. Taxes. China’s biggest oil company losing a ton of money on imported natural gas.

Like clockwork, when PetroChina Co. opens its books to investors, it reveals how much money it lost selling overseas gas to customers in China. The 11.2 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) loss in the first half of this year it announced Thursday brings the grand total to $34 billion since 2011, when they started regularly breaking out the figures in earnings reports.

China’s demand for gas is booming as the government of Xi Jinping encourages its use to clean smoggy urban skies, pushing China past ...