Sawt Falasteen - Mexico's Pemex posts first annual profit in decade

The company reported a net profit of 23.0 billion pesos ($1.25 billion) for 2022, compared with a loss of 294.8 billion pesos in 2021.

It was the group's first full year in the black since 2012.

Revenue rose 60 percent to nearly 2.4 trillion pesos, a statement said.

Pemex is recovering from what it called its worst ever crisis in 2020, when an economic slump sparked by the coronavirus pandemic caused oil prices to briefly turn negative for the first time.

Like other international oil majors, it has staged a strong rebound on the back of higher energy prices fueled by rising demand and supply concerns fueled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

For the fourth quarter of 2022, the company reported a net loss of 172.6 billion pesos -- partly due to higher sales costs -- though that was 11 percent smaller than its loss in the same period of 2021.

Since taking office in late 2018, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has sought to help Pemex with cash injections and other measures following years of declining production.

Pemex said its total debt stood at $107.7 billion at the end of 2022, down seven percent from a year earlier.

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST