Mexico's Pemex posts $10.2bn third quarter loss

Mexico's state-run energy giant Pemex posted on Wednesday a $10.2 billion loss in the third quarter, nearly tripling the hole it dug in the same period last year.

The company said it fell deeper in the red due to falling oil prices and the peso's slide against the US dollar.

The company posted a loss of 167.6 billion pesos in the third quarter, compared to 59.7 billion in the same period last year. It is also nearly double the 84.6 billion peso loss it reported in the second quarter.

Pemex said in its report to Mexico's stock market that the price of Mexican crude tumbled from $90.42 per barrel in the third quarter of 2014 to $41.75 in the same period this year.

Oil production fell to 2.266 million barrels per day in the July-September period, a 5.5 percent drop from third quarter of 2014.

The company has struggled to stem a decade-long slide in production, which peaked at 3.4 million barrels per day in 2004.

Pemex announced separately that it would, for the first time, import 75,000 barrels of light-crude oil per day from the United States to improve its refinery system, and in return send heavy crude to its northern neighbor.

The exchange will allow Mexico to reduce production of fuel oil while obtaining gasoline and diesel for higher value, the company said.

"Mexico imports crude from another country for the first time and it's for economic reasons," Jose Manuel Carrera, a Pemex executive, told Radio Formula.

President Enrique Pena Nieto enacted last year a landmark energy reform bill that reopened the country's oil and gas sector to foreign investors in a bid to kickstart production and boost the economy.