Brazil's scandal-hit state oil giant Petrobras lost $7.2bn last year

Brazil's scandal-hit state oil giant Petrobras lost $7.2 billion last year, it said Wednesday, releasing its first audited account of the damage from a massive kickbacks scheme.

The corruption scandal, in which Petrobras executives allegedly colluded with construction companies to massively inflate contracts and bribe politicians, has badly hurt Brazil's largest company and President Dilma Rousseff's government.

Petrobras said it lost 6.2 billion reals ($2.1 billion) to the scheme from 2004 to 2012, which it included in its long-delayed 2014 results.

The company announced a devaluation of its assets of $14.8 billion, largely because of postponed refinery projects.