BEIJING - The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the listed unit of the largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas in China, reported decreased revenue for the first quarter of 2020.

The CNOOC generated 41.58 billion yuan (about $5.89 billion) of revenue in the first three months, down 2.83 billion yuan year on year.

The oil output of the CNOOC rose 9.5 percent year on year to 131.5 million barrels of oil equivalent in the first quarter.

The company's average oil price decreased 19.3 percent year on year to $49.03 per barrel, following the trend of the global oil price while the average realized natural gas price was $6.38 per thousand cubic feet, down 7.3 percent, mainly due to the decrease of the gas price in North America.

As a result of the drop in the realized oil price and the rise of oil and gas sales, the unaudited revenue from oil and gas sales in the first quarter only dropped 5.5 percent to about 39.95 billion yuan, according to a statement from the company's website.

The company has minimized the negative impact from the COVID-19 epidemic and the plunge of the global oil price in the first quarter, and will enact stricter cost management and pay more attention to cash flow management this year, said Xu Keqiang, CEO of the company.