AMESPAC: MX$27.2 Billion in 2024 PEMEX Supplier Debt Unpaid

The Mexican Association of Petroleum Services Companies (AMESPAC) issued an urgent statement revealing that PEMEX still owes more than MX$27.24 billion (over US$1.55 billion) in unpaid supplier debt from the 2024 fiscal year. While the government's "Onyx" mechanism with Banobras has partially covered newer 2025 and 2026 invoices, the unresolved 2024 vintage balances remain frozen outside the payment vehicle. This persistent backlog forces publicly traded international contractors to flag these non-performing receivables under SEC regulations, causing severe operational contractions across the supply chain, evidenced by a drastic drop in active drilling rigs, while heightening risks of a sovereign credit rating downgrade.

PEMEX’s debt accumulated during 2024 remains unpaid. According to the Mexican Association of Petroleum Services Companies (AMESPAC), the outstanding amount exceeds MX$27.2 billion, equivalent to more than US$1.5 billion. The association warned that the debt compromises the investment commitments outlined in Plan México, and that the situation has forced several of its member companies, which trade on international stock exchanges, to reflect the outstanding receivables in their financial disclosures in accordance with New York Stock Exchange rules, US GAAP accounting standards, and SEC regulations.

AMESPAC stated explicitly that the unpaid balances "necessarily compromise the credit rating of PEMEX's international debt and eventually the corresponding sovereign debt rating, affecting the investment objectives in infrastructure outlined in the recently announced Plan México." The association, which groups 49 of the principal hydrocarbon exploration and extraction service providers operating in Mexico, said that the lack of attention to the 2024 outstanding balances "has generated great uncertainty," severely affecting the petroleum industry's value chain and putting companies at risk of closure as reported by Proceso.

What Has Been Paid

AMESPAC specified that part of the debt corresponding to 2025 and 2026 has been covered through the "Onyx" mechanism implemented by Banobras and PEMEX's treasury. The Onyx scheme, which the Sheinbaum administration deployed as a structured payment vehicle channeling Banobras financing to clear contractor obligations, has been addressing more recent receivables while the oldest outstanding balance, from 2024, remains unresolved.

That sequencing creates a legally and commercially anomalous situation. A contractor may have received partial payment on a 2025 or 2026 invoice while continuing to carry a 2024 balance as a non-performing receivable, one that, under US GAAP and SEC disclosure requirements, must be recognized and disclosed publicly if the contractor is a listed company. The disclosure obligation is not a choice: listed companies cannot selectively suppress material receivables from their financial statements, regardless of the relationship with the debtor.

A Pattern of Partial Resolution

The Energy Workforce and Technology Council, representing over 250 US and global energy service companies, formally called on President Sheinbaum in July 2025 to address outstanding payments, estimating PEMEX owed approximately US$871 million for services rendered in 2024 that were uncollectible without required COPADES documentation, and an additional US$983 million for work completed in 2025. The USTR's 2026 National Trade Estimate Report flagged the PEMEX supplier debt issue as a bilateral trade concern, noting that US companies supplying Mexico's oil and gas sector reported overdue amounts exceeding US$2.5 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025.

Individual company disclosures tell the same story from a different angle. Weatherford International's CFO stated in a quarterly earnings call that the company received a large payment from its principal Mexican customer in 4Q25 and another in 1Q26, with the outstanding balance standing at approximately US$283 million as of March 31, 2026. He described the payment cadence as running "like clockwork" since the new mechanisms were put in place. The Weatherford disclosure illustrates a partial normalization: one major service contractor is receiving structured payments, but still carrying a balance, and the AMESPAC statement suggests that 2024-vintage balances remain outside the scope of the Onyx mechanism's coverage.

The Operational Consequences

AMESPAC President Rafael Espino warned in mid-2025 that over MX$50 billion in unregistered service estimates, fully delivered contracts that had not been formally invoiced or entered into PEMEX's internal payment system, were generating no payment rights, not appearing in financial statements, and providing no clear payment horizon. Without registration, suppliers have no legal claim to payment, no access to Banobras financing mechanisms, and no visibility for rating agency assessors evaluating PEMEX's total outstanding obligations.

The commercial consequence has been documented consistently: the number of active drilling rigs in Mexico fell from 57 in January 2024 to 24 in 2025, a 58% decrease, directly reflecting the broader contraction in oilfield services activity tied to PEMEX's payment delays. That rig count collapse is the most direct operational expression of the supplier debt problem: companies that cannot collect on existing contracts are not deploying additional equipment or crews to generate new uncollectable receivables.

The Credit Rating Risk

The association's warning that unpaid 2024 supplier balances could eventually affect Mexico's sovereign credit rating is not speculative: it describes a transmission channel that Moody's has explicitly modeled. Moody's warned as early as February 2026 that Mexico's debt could rise to 55% of GDP if government support to PEMEX continues at current levels, while the May 2026 sovereign downgrade to Baa3 cited sustained weakening in fiscal strength partly attributable to the ongoing PEMEX support burden. AMESPAC's argument is the operational complement to that macroeconomic assessment: if unresolved 2024 supplier balances generate rating actions on PEMEX's own debt, the sovereign GRI linkage that currently provides uplift from PEMEX's ca standalone BCA to its B1 published rating could face downward pressure that transmits back to the sovereign.

President Sheinbaum has stated publicly that PEMEX will not require federal support from the Ministry of Finance by 2027, a commitment that requires the company to achieve financial self-sufficiency at a moment when its proven 1P reserves have fallen 40% over eleven years, export volumes are running 20% below SHCP targets, and MX$27.2 billion in supplier receivables from 2024 remain unresolved.