The president of Petróleos de Moçambique (Petromoc) said Monday that the firm has managed to reduce its debt from 13 billion meticals to about six billion meticals.

Hélder Chambisso was speaking to journalists, after receiving a visit from members of the Planning and Budget Commission (CPO) of the Assembly of the Republic.

Chambisso advanced that the debts are with banks and suppliers, putting the company operating with negative equity.

"We have not distributed dividends to shareholders, because we are in negative equity, but we will soon start distributing dividends," he said.

The decrease in Petromoc's debt service resulted from a plan that the company has been implementing for the past four years, the president of the Mozambican state oil company added.

Hélder Chambisso noted that the company's recovery has been negatively conditioned by the fact that the price paid for fuel in the country does not compensate for the costs, since the tariff is administratively set by the state.