China’s once-freewheeling oil giants are singing a new tune: They’d rather sit on stockpiles of cash than produce more energy. As the commodities slump stretches into its third year with uncertainty over prices still rattling markets, earnings this week by China’s three big state-owned oil and gas companies had something in common. The companies all said capital expenditures fell far below budgeted levels in the first nine months this year. Most dramatically, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., also known as Sinopec, said Thursday that its capital spending in the first three quarters was under 25 billion yuan ($3.7 billion). By contrast, the company previously said it planned to invest around 100 billion yuan this year. Partly as a result, its cash stockpile jumped 40% versus where it was this time last year to more than […]