Over MX$32 Billion Used to Upgrade Refineries

The López current administration has spent over MX$32 billion, equivalent to US$1.5 billion, in rehabilitation efforts for the country’s refineries.

It is common knowledge that one of the main and most important goals of the federal government led by President López Obrador is to achieve energy sovereignty and, particularly, to stop fuel imports. For that purpose, the president´s government has set out not only to make controversial decisions like building the Dos Bocas refinery or purchasing the Deer Park Refinery in Texas, but also to upgrade and rehabilitate the country’s existing refineries.

During his visit to southern Veracruz refinery General Lázaro Cárdenas, in Minatitlan, to supervise works after a fire that broke out last April, the President reiterated his administration’s commitment to the country´s energy sovereignty, highlighting that ever since he took office on December 2018, over MX$32 billion have been spent on the existing six PEMEX refineries.  

“With the new Dos Bocas refinery and the one we are buying from Shell in Texas, and with a coker unit in Tula, we are going to be self-sufficient, we are no longer going to buy gasoline, diesel from abroad. We will produce everything we need in Mexico, we are going to process all our raw material, all the crude oil that has been sold abroad so far,” said the president.

In addition, the president promised to extract no more gasoline than necessary, pointing to its non-renewability nature, the importance of taking care of the environment, and also to “save enough for future generations.” López Obrador promised not to exceed the two million barrels per day mark. While on visit to supervise the Dos Bocas construction process, the president also reiterated that the average 340 thousand barrels being exported today will be processed at the refinery when completed, guaranteeing that prices will no longer increase (the so-called gasolinazos).

The president’s visits to the various work sites on either refinery took place a couple of days after two collegiate tribunals specialized in economic competition backed up on the previous suspensions put on the president´s proposed reform to the Hydrocarbon Law, a reform that will grant the Ministry of Energy with the powers to overhaul industry permits, promoted by judge Juan Pablo Gómez Fierro, which, according to analysts, is a victory for the federal government.