MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian state-led oil company Petrobras posted a loss of 3.76 billion reais (USD1.01 billion) in the third quarter as lower oil prices, a weaker Brazilian currency against the dollar and the country's worst recession in decades crimped revenue, said Reuters.
It was the third loss in five quarters at Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, and widely missed market expectations for a loss of about 800 million reais. A year earlier Petrobras recorded a 5.34-billion-real loss.
Net sales, or total sales minus sales taxes, fell 6.9 percent to 82.2 billion reais compared with 88.4 billion a year earlier.
Operational results, however, improved strongly. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a key measure of cash generation known as EBITDA, rose 82 percent to 15.5 billion reais from 8.49 billion reais.
As MRC informed earlier, Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has announced two amendments to its contract to supply naphtha to Braskem SA, Latin America's largest petrochemical company are worth 950 million reais (USD252 million).
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC