Employees of China National Offshore Oil Corporation work on its deepwater drilling platform in South China Sea. [Photo provided to China Daily]

BEIJING - China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the country's biggest offshore oil and gas producer, said on Wednesday that its output fell 7.7 percent year on year to 117.7 million barrels of oil equivalent during the third quarter of the year.

The rare decline in output was partly due to sluggish demand in the domestic market. Due to plummeting international oil and gas prices, CNOOC reported a net loss of 7.74 billion yuan ($1.14 billion) during the first half.

CNOOC's revenues hit around 30.75 billion yuan during the third quarter, down 15.2 percent year on year.

Oil and gas prices sold by the company stood at $42.26 per barrel and $5.22 1,000 cubic feet, respectively, falling 13.5 percent and 18.6 percent from a year earlier.

Against the backdrop of low fuel prices, CNOOC cut costs to trim losses. Its capital expenditure plunged over 20 percent to 11.67 billion yuan during the July-September period.