Pemex Turns Profit in Q1

Mexican state-run oil company Pemex on Friday said its net profit rose 29 percent in the first quarter compared with the year-earlier quarter, helped by higher crude prices and currency movements.

The company, one of the largest in Latin America, reported a profit of 113.3 billion pesos ($6.2 billion) in the first three months of the year. Revenue rose 14 percent to 397.4 billion pesos.

Pemex said the company was helped by higher crude prices, which rose to $56.42 from $44.15 in the quarter, helping push export sales up 23.8 percent.

Sales in Mexico, particularly gasoline and diesel, also rose 9.2 percent due to higher prices.

Mexico's peso also strengthened more than 7 percent against the dollar in the first quarter.

The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto enacted a wide-ranging reform in 2013-2014 to encourage foreign investment and end the slide in oil output to multiyear lows, ending Pemex's monopoly in the sector.

Pemex's crude and natural gas production were both lower in the first quarter than the same period last year.


($1 = 18.303 pesos at end-March)

(Reporting by Christine Murray; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)