HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum registered an $82 million net loss in the first quarter, compared with a net income of $410 million in the same period last year, amid weak refining margins, the Houston-based company said on Thursday.

Citgo, whose assets are being pursued by expropriated companies and bondholders defaulted by Venezuela through a U.S. court-organized auction, registered red numbers again in its latest period, following a $146 million loss in the fourth quarter.

"Despite the unfavorable pricing environment, we continued to focus on operational excellence and set a historic quarterly crude processing rate at the Lake Charles refinery," said CEO Carlos Jorda in a release.

Average throughput of the seventh largest U.S. oil refiner in the first quarter was 833,000 barrels per day (bpd), of which crude runs were 768,000 bpd for an overall crude utilization of 95%, below the 98% registered in the previous quarter.

Utilization at the Lake Charles, Louisiana, refinery rose to 99%, but fell at the Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery to 83% from 96% in the previous quarter as the facility underwent planned maintenance work.

The company's profit plummeted to $305 million last year, below the $2 billion profit of 2023, which has changed expectations from some creditors and investors about how much can be recovered from the auction in Delaware.

Following a failed bidding round last year, the court launched a new bidding round by choosing a $3.7 billion starting bid last month. A final sale hearing is scheduled for July after rival bids are received and a winner selected in coming months.

In the first quarter, Citgo's volume of marketing sales declined slightly to 423,000 bpd, the company said.

Citgo reported equipment and turnaround expenditures of $35 million between January and March. Its quarter-end liquidity - an important metric for the auction - declined to $2.1 billion from $3.8 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.