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Mexico City (AFP)

Mexico's state oil company Pemex posted an $18 billion loss in the last quarter of 2017, it said Monday, blaming depreciation of the peso and higher debt-servicing costs.

The loss for October-November-December totalled 352,262 million pesos, said the group, Mexico's largest. That compared with a 72,658-million-peso ($3.8 billion) profit for the same period in 2016.

Pemex said average daily production had slipped to 1.88 million barrels, lower than the two million barrels a day it had seen in 2016's final quarter -- and nearly half the 3.3 million barrels a day it had been pumping a decade and a half ago.

For all of 2017, Pemex registered a net loss of 333,400 million pesos ($17.9 billion).

The company accounts for around 16 percent of Mexico's public-sector revenues.

It has run into financial difficulties in recent years because of its declining production and the lingering effects of the sharp fall in oil prices in 2015.

Mexico's government is trying to shore up the company through a vast energy sector reform, and by opening up the sector to private investors.

© 2018 AFP