PETROCHINA, which raised US$8.9 billion in the world's biggest share sale this year, saw its shares jump by as much as 191 percent on its first day of trading in Shanghai after investors applied for a record amount of stock.

PetroChina, the nation's largest oil and gas producer, saw its shares almost triple from its initial public offering price of 16.70 yuan (US$2.24) to 48.60 yuan at 9:30am. It climbed by 163.23 percent, or 27.26 yuan, to close at 43.96 yuan at 3:00pm today.

The Beijing-based company raised 66.8 billion yuan from a sale of four billion shares in Shanghai, which was the world's biggest share sale this year, to expand its refineries and increase output at oilfields. That is the top end of the range offered.

The company, the world's largest oil refiner by market value, became the world's first trillion-dollar company, surpassing Exxon Mobil Corp thanks to the Shanghai listing.

Chinese investors, undeterred by the world's highest valuations for traded companies, are rushing to buy into a stock market that has almost tripled in size this year.

China unexpectedly increased fuel prices by as much as 10 percent on Thursday in what the government said was an "urgent step'' to help the nation's oil refiners cover rising costs as crude oil surged to record-high levels.

US oil settled up US$2.44 to US$95.93 a barrel on Friday, close to the record US$96.24 hit earlier in the week, while Brent crude rose US$2.36 to US$92.08 a barrel.

Oil demand in China, the biggest consumer of oil after the United States, will rise 5.9 percent to 7.6 million barrels a day this year, the International Energy Agency said in its September forecast. Oil has climbed 36 percent this year.

PetroChina has surged more than 16-fold since its Hong Kong listing in 2000 as oil prices tripled and demand surged.

Shares of PetroChina has surged 78 percent this year, more than the 58 percent advance on the city's benchmark Hang Seng Index.

Demand for PetroChina's Shanghai shares exceeded the 2.66 trillion yuan China Shenhua Energy Co attracted in what had been the nation's most-subscribed share offer. Shenhua, China's biggest coal producer, raised 66.6 billion yuan last month.

PetroChina plans to spend about 200 billion yuan annually in the next three years to expand, the company's Chai Shouping said last month.