Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras reported a steep loss for the first quarter of the year Thursday and warned more heavy losses were on the horizon because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The company reported a loss of 48.5 billion reals ($8.35 billion) for the first three months of the year, its worst quarter since it was hit by a huge corruption scandal in 2014-2017.
The loss was mainly because of a 65.3-billion-real impairment charge the company took when it wrote down the value of some of its oil fields, saying the "challenging environment" now meant they were overvalued.
"The global oil and gas industry has been hit hard and is facing its worst crisis in the last 100 years," chief executive Roberto Castello Branco said in a statement.
The loss came despite the fact that oil prices only started their downward spiral toward the end of the quarter.
"The global recession did not significantly affect the company's performance in 1Q20, which is expected to happen in the following quarters," Branco said.
The dramatic plunge in oil demand in recent months may linger even after the pandemic, he added, saying the company now takes "a more cautious view on the evolution of oil prices over the next few years."
