AIRLINK 196.38 Increased By ▲ 4.54 (2.37%)
BOP 10.11 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (2.43%)
CNERGY 7.75 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.04%)
FCCL 38.10 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (0.63%)
FFL 15.74 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.13%)
FLYNG 24.54 Decreased By ▼ -0.77 (-3.04%)
HUBC 130.38 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (0.16%)
HUMNL 13.73 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (1.03%)
KEL 4.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.5%)
KOSM 6.19 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.32%)
MLCF 44.85 Increased By ▲ 0.56 (1.26%)
OGDC 206.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.36 (-0.17%)
PACE 6.58 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.3%)
PAEL 39.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.78 (-1.92%)
PIAHCLA 17.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-2.22%)
PIBTL 7.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.99%)
POWER 9.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.43%)
PPL 178.91 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (0.2%)
PRL 38.93 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.38%)
PTC 24.31 Increased By ▲ 0.17 (0.7%)
SEARL 109.27 Increased By ▲ 1.42 (1.32%)
SILK 1.00 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (3.09%)
SSGC 37.75 Decreased By ▼ -1.36 (-3.48%)
SYM 18.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-1.52%)
TELE 8.53 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.81%)
TPLP 12.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.23 (-1.86%)
TRG 64.76 Decreased By ▼ -1.25 (-1.89%)
WAVESAPP 12.11 Decreased By ▼ -0.67 (-5.24%)
WTL 1.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-3.53%)
YOUW 3.87 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-2.03%)
BR100 12,000 Increased By 69.2 (0.58%)
BR30 35,548 Decreased By -112 (-0.31%)
KSE100 114,256 Increased By 1049.3 (0.93%)
KSE30 35,870 Increased By 304.3 (0.86%)

MEXICO CITY: Mexican state oil company Pemex registered a loss of 35.7 billion pesos ($1.88 billion) in the first quarter of 2019, it announced Tuesday, falling back into the red despite a government bailout.

The troubled company -- the biggest in Latin America's second-largest economy -- said the loss was mainly due to financial costs caused by the depreciation of the peso against the dollar.

It is the latest bad news for both Pemex, whose $106.5-billion debt makes it one of the world's most indebted companies, and for leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is trying to help the firm regain its footing with a series of cash injections, tax benefits and other rescue measures.

Pemex said sales fell 10.4 percent in the period from January to March, to around $18.7 billion. It reported average production of 1.6 million barrels a day, down 12 percent from the same period last year.

The company's production has plummeted for years, from a peak of 3.4 million barrels per day in 2004.

Experts say it needs massive investment to get back on track -- but is severely limited by its already huge debt.

Ratings agency Fitch, which downgraded Pemex in January, says the firm needs an additional $9 billion to $14 billion annually -- well beyond the $5.5-billion rescue plan launched by Lopez Obrador in January.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Carlos Urzua announced the government would give the company an additional $5.2 billion from a public stabilization fund, but the move needs approval from Congress.

Lopez Obrador, who took office in December, is an energy nationalist who wants to restore Pemex to its glory days and cut Mexico's dependence on foreign gasoline by building new refineries.

His committment to the company is a change in strategy from his predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, who signed a landmark energy reform in 2014 ending Pemex's 76-year monopoly and reopening the oil sector to private companies.

Pemex lost a total of $7.5 billion in 2018, though it had posted a profit of $5.96 billion for the quarter from January to March last year.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Press), 2019

Comments

Comments are closed.