Brazil’s Petrobras reports record loss in 2015

Brazilian state oil company Petrobras on Monday reported a record loss for 2015, hit by the crash in crude prices and a corruption scandal in which it is the central player.

The firm said it lost 34.8 billion reals ($9.6 billion), its second year in the red and worst performance since its founding in 1953.

“It was an extremely difficult year for the oil industry in general,” chief executive Aldemir Bendine told a press conference.

The company lost $7.2 billion in 2014.

It said it faced a long list of adverse business conditions last year that also included a sinking real currency, expensive interest payments and Brazil’s credit downgrade to junk status by the big three ratings agencies.

Anti-corruption investigators have uncovered a massive fraud scheme in which Petrobras executives colluded with contractors to overbill the company over the course of a decade, bribing politicians and political parties to keep the scheme going.