Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras on Thursday night posted whopping third quarter losses, caused mainly by write-downs on assets. Losses amounted to R$16.5 billion, up sharply from third-quarter 2015 losses of R$3.8 billion. Company officials said they were anxious to post a series of accounting write-downs in the same quarter in order to create a clean slate for 2017. Petrobras wrote down the value of assets for a number of reasons, including losses from foreign exchange fluctuations and declining international oil prices. The company is also facing a rise in debt-service costs because of higher risk evaluations for Brazilian obligations. Petrobras also increased its provisioning against a buy-out plan for employees and possible costs from civil suits now pending in U.S. courts. Petrobras is Brazil’s largest industrial corporation. It is also the most heavily indebted oil company in the world.
Link to Petrobras release
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