State oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s largest company, said it posted a net loss of $6.5 billion in 2011, a 103 percent increase over 2010.
Pemex said the loss was due in large part to a “significant” fluctuation in the exchange rate, which ended 2011 at nearly 14 pesos to the dollar, and higher tax payments.
“Our debt obligations and other financial instruments are mostly (denominated) in dollars” and exchange-rate fluctuations “are significantly reflected in those instruments,” the company’s chief financial officer, Ignacio Quesada, said in a press conference.
“We hope that during this year, as we’ve seen the exchange rate return (to around 12 pesos to the dollar), the bulk of that loss will disappear,” the CFO said, adding that Pemex is not bankrupt despite several years of losses.
The company, whose tax contributions fund roughly 30 percent of the federal budget, took in $111.4 billion in total revenue last year, up 21.6 percent compared to 2010.
That figure, a record high, was due among other reasons to higher oil and gas prices.
Pemex produced 2.55 million barrels of crude oil per day, down 1 percent from 2010, due in part to unfavorable climatic conditions.
The company’s gross profit came in at $55.6 billion, up 19.2 percent from 2010, while its earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization totaled $76.9 billion, 29.4 percent higher than the previous year.
Meanwhile, Pemex’s export revenue climbed 30.4 percent to $55.25 billion and its net debt rose 25.3 percent to $47.55 billion.
The company invested $19.09 billion in 2011, or 93.3 percent of programmed investment, and said that it 2012 it plans to invest $21.5 billion.
Pemex said it had negative equity totaling $13.73 billion on Dec. 31, 2011, or 72.6 percent more than at the end of 2010.
The company’s output of natural gas and petrochemicals fell 6.1 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively, and its crude export volume was down 1.7 percent.
The number of Pemex wells in operation climbed by 836 in 2011 due to increased well connection and the completion and reopening of others.
Mexico’s oil output totaled almost 3.4 million barrels per day in 2004, but has since has fallen due to a sharp decline in production at offshore Cantarell, formerly Mexico’s most productive field, and a lack of investment.
The government, however, said last year that Pemex had succeeded in halting a steady annual decline in its reserves dating back to 1979.
A recent oil sector overhaul in Mexico gave the oil monopoly more freedom to undertake projects with private firms, which are to be hired under incentive-based service contracts.
Experts say the domestic energy industry’s future is in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
Pemex, however, lacks the proprietary technology to drill in deepwater areas, a problem blamed by many analysts on the company’s highly regulated operations and the fact that it accounts for nearly a third of the Treasury’s revenues, leaving little money to invest in new technologies. EFE
