Pemex fuel imports to fall In 2025 as domestic refining ramps up

Mexico’s state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos will cut its imports of fuels next year as its flagship refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco, comes online.

Pemex’s fuel imports will shrink to about 54,000 barrels of gasoline, diesel and other fuels per day by September and to 20,000 barrels daily next year as domestic refining capacity grows, the company’s chief executive Octavio Romero said.

In the first quarter of 2025, “we will achieve 98% self-sufficiency in fuels,” Romero said in a press briefing Friday. “The growth is due to the fact that the Olmeca refinery will come online in the coming days.”

The opening of the Dos Bocas refinery, also known as Olmeca, has been a key pillar of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s promise to bring “energy sovereignty” to Mexico during his term. 

The refinery, which was processing as much as 101,000 barrels per day last week, has been saddled with cost overruns and repeated delays as Pemex has tried to ramp up production to its full capacity of 340,000 barrels per day.

Pemex’s total refining capacity is expected to reach 1.76 million barrels per day at its domestic refineries including its Deer Park facility in Houston, Texas, by 2025, Romero said.

“Pemex is going very well,” AMLO, as the President is known, said in the same press conference. “We are not going to buy any gasoline, jet fuel, or diesel from foreign sources.”

Pemex will prove to be one of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum biggest challenges when she takes office in October. Pemex, the world’s most indebted oil company, has a total debt load of around $99.4 billion and crude and condensate output stands at about 1.85 million barrels per day, roughly half of its peak output from 20 years ago. 

The company has also been hampered by a spate of deadly accidents, oil spills and methane leaks in recent years, sparking investor concerns. 

On Friday, authorities in Mexico’s Jalisco state evacuated over 200 people from the town of Zapotlanejo, after a Pemex pipeline was pierced leading to a “major” oil leak.