Shanghai, Mar 9:  PetroChina, Asia's top oil producer, has not set definitive plans for a possible A-share listing, the official Shanghai Securities News quoted a company spokesman as saying on Thursday.

''Our company is studying a return to the A-share market, but we haven't a timetable for the share offer,'' the newspaper said, citing the unnamed spokesman.

PetroChina Co. Ltd. <0857.HK>, had already applied to regulators to issue A shares on the Chinese mainland, the paper said, citing recent reports in domestic media.

China International Capital Corp. (CICC), in which Morgan Stanley owns 34.3 percent, had been selected as underwriter for the listing, through which the firm expects to raise 30 billion yuan (.9 billion), the paper cited reports as saying.

PetroChina is the world's largest oil firm by market value after ExxonMobil . In 2006, its overall oil and gas output rose 5.2 percent to 1.06 billion barrels of oil equivalent worldwide -- narrowly beating its own 5 percent target.

PetroChina's Hong Kong-listed shares jumped 74 percent last year, but have fallen 19 percent since the start of this year.

Reuters

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