Mexican state oil firm Pemex reports $4.3-bn Q3 losses

Mexican oil company Pemex on Friday announced a third-quarter loss of more than $4.3 billion, as well as a continued drop in production.

The $4.32-billion loss was 52.5 percent greater than that registered in the same period a year earlier, according to a Pemex statement.

Pemex has seen huge losses since last year as its oil production has steadily dwindled.

In the third quarter, crude production averaged about 2.4 million barrels a day, which is 4.3 percent less than in the third quarter of 2013, a company executive, Luis Ramos, said in a phone call with investors.

A decade ago, production was at 3.4 million barrels a day.

To boost energy production, the Mexican government has launched a sweeping overhaul of the energy sector, ending the 76-year-old state monopoly on oil drilling and reopening the sector to foreign companies.

Pemex, the world's seventh-largest oil producer, announced losses of $4 billion in the second quarter.

In 2013, total losses were $12.8 billion.