The brand new Pemex refinery on the Gulf coast of Tabasco will start manufacturing on Friday, President López Obrador introduced Friday morning.
“The brand new Dos Bocas refinery will start producing petroleum right this moment,” he mentioned throughout his fifth annual report, a State of the Union-style tackle delivered this yr in Campeche metropolis.
López Obrador didn’t specify what sort of gasoline will initially be produced on the state oil firm’s refinery within the Paraíso municipality of Tabasco.
Nevertheless, he mentioned that 290,000 barrels of gasoline can be produced there day by day by the top of the yr.
The power, formally referred to as the Olmeca Refinery, was inaugurated in July 2022, regardless that it wasn’t completed and hadn’t begun processing crude oil. The primary cargo of crude was transferred to the refinery earlier this yr. Refining capability is slated to succeed in 340,000 barrels per day (bpd) sooner or later.
In accordance with a authorities doc obtained by the El Common newspaper final yr, the ultimate value of constructing the brand new refinery in López Obrador’s house state can be simply over US $20 billion, greater than double the unique estimate of $8.9 billion.
In 2019, the federal government scrapped a bidding course of to construct it on the grounds that the bids submitted by personal corporations have been too excessive and they might take too lengthy to finish it. Pemex and the Power Ministry have been subsequently given accountability for the venture.
Some analysts have been important of the federal government’s resolution to construct the refinery, arguing that the venture diverts sources from Pemex’s extra worthwhile exploration enterprise.
However López Obrador, a staunch power nationalist, asserts that the refinery – one in every of a number of main infrastructure tasks undertaken by the present authorities – will assist Mexico attain self sufficiency for gasoline, an goal he needs to attain earlier than he leaves workplace in late 2024.
In Campeche on Friday, he mentioned that Pemex’s six different refineries in Mexico have been upgraded “with an funding of 70 billion pesos,” about US $4.1 billion on the present alternate price.
“That’s why manufacturing has elevated from 38% [of capacity] to 60%,” López Obrador mentioned with out mentioning that refining ranges final month dropped nicely beneath the goal wanted for self sufficiency.
The Deer Park refinery close to Houston, Texas, that’s now absolutely owned by Pemex after it purchased Shell Oil Firm’s 50% share in early 2022 is processing 340,000 bpd, he mentioned, noting that the power has now been absolutely paid for.
“In 2018 we imported 900,000 barrels of gasoline per day, … which accounted for 80% of nationwide consumption once we obtained to authorities. On the finish of this yr we’ll solely be importing 250,000 barrels [per day], which represents 20% of nationwide consumption,” López Obrador mentioned.
“The plan is that subsequent yr we gained’t purchase gasoline or diesel overseas, and all [of Mexico’s] crude oil can be processed right here as a way to give added worth to our uncooked materials and preserve low gasoline costs to profit shoppers,” he mentioned.
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