Mexico refinery push risks return to shunned oil imports

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s push to make Mexico self-sufficient in gasoline and diesel risks bringing back as early as next year crude imports that the president once lambasted. 

State-owned producer Petroleos Mexicanos estimates oil supply deficits of 47,000 barrels a day in 2023 and 97,000 in 2024 due to operational changes at its Cangrejera plant, according to company documents seen by Bloomberg. That’s despite the company’s forecast that oil production will jump 14% to 2 million barrels a day as early as December, the documents show.

Lopez Obrador has made energy independence a centerpiece of his nationalist agenda, moving to halt both fuel and crude imports. His government also plans to stop exporting oil next year—but his efforts likely mean the nation has to start importing crude again, because Pemex doesn’t have the oil volumes necessary to meet the country’s fuel consumption, Moody’s Investor Service analyst Nymia Almeida said in an interview last week. 

In a Dec. 28 presentation, the company said “necessary adjustments would be made to meet demand” over the next two years to offset the crude supply deficits.

Lopez Obrador’s office and Pemex didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

Mexico hasn’t imported oil since 2018, when a purchase of oil from the U.S. under Mexico’s previous administration was strongly criticized by Lopez Obrador. 

He said on Twitter at the time that the 1.4 million-barrel import of Bakken crude from U.S. refiner Phillips 66 was “an example of the great failure of neo-liberal economic policies in the last 30 years.” 

Pemex expects crude-processing capacity at its Cangrejera plant to be 133,000 barrels a day in 2023. Cangrejera’s aromatics train and services are being rehabilitated, it’s increasing liquefied petroleum gas production and high-octane hydrocarbons for blending in gasoline production. It’s expected to produce 40,000 barrels a day of gasoline next year, and 9,000 barrels a day of diesel. 

Mexico is also incorporating two new plants into the national refining system next year—the Dos Bocas facility under construction in Tabasco state and the Deer Park refinery near Houston—with a combined capacity of more than 650,000 barrels a day.

The company aims to raise refinery utilization rates to 86% in two years, a major feat considering that the last time utilization rates were above 50% was in 2016. Its existing six refineries averaged 44% of capacity last year, according to data on Pemex’s website.