Mexican state energy giant Pemex on Friday reported a smaller first quarter loss compared with a year earlier, helped by a global rebound in oil prices and demand.

The company is battling back from what it has called the worst crisis in its history last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pemex reported a net loss of 37.36 billion pesos ($1.85 billion) for the three months to March, against a loss of 562.25 billion pesos in the same period of 2020.

Revenue rose 11.8 percent from a year earlier, to 317.55 billion pesos.

Mexican state energy giant Pemex has reported a smaller first quarter loss compared with a year earlier, helped by a global rebound in oil prices and demand.
Mexican state energy giant Pemex has reported a smaller first quarter loss compared with a year earlier, helped by a global rebound in oil prices and demand. AFP / Alfredo ESTRELLA

The group said it had sold more barrels of oil and benefited from the global recovery in energy prices, as well as a stronger peso against the dollar.

Even so, Pemex sank back into loss after posting two consecutive quarterly profits up to December, the first time it had done so in more than four years.

The group lost around $23 billion in 2020 as it joined other oil firms worldwide hit by an economic slump that caused oil prices to briefly turn negative for the first time.

Rating agencies Fitch and Moody's have downgraded the company's credit rating to junk status due to its vulnerability in the face of low oil prices and its need for greater government support.

Pemex said its total debt rose four percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, to $113.9 billion.