FGR Demands 39 Years of Jail Time for Lozoya

After numerous hearings and other pre-trial motions, Mexico’s Attorney General (FGR) formally filed charges and sentencing recommendations against former PEMEX Director General Emilio Lozoya, requesting a total of 39 years in jail for money laundering and criminal conspiracy. FGR also filed charges against Lozoya’s mother and recommended a sentence of 25 years in jail for her. 

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Tax Reform Could Boost PEMEX in 2022

Independent Oil and Gas Analyst and Former PEMEX Independent Advisory Board Member Fluvio Ruiz Alarcón said this week that a deep tax reform would be necessary to address PEMEX’s debt issues. “The tax reform would allow a profound transformation of PEMEX’s fiscal regime to carry out institutional changes that give it management and budgetary autonomy and to make its investment decisions based on the oil industry’s logic, not on the short-term needs of the Mexican state,” said Ruiz. “With a reform, PEMEX's tax burden could be permanently lightened, temporarily supported to significantly reduce its debt and restructure its liabilities.”

PEMEX Director Presents “Self-Sufficiency” Plan

PEMEX Director General Octavio Romero presented a ten-point plan to guarantee its “self-sufficiency” by 2023 during his last press conference of 2021. The first point concerned reserved replacement ratios. Specifically, Romero wants PEMEX’s exploration and reserve incorporation activities to continue at a constant pace so that the NOC’s reserve replacement rate between 2019 and 2024 can reach 100 percent. The second point concerned this aforementioned increased production: Romero continues to set 2MMb/d as the production benchmark to be reached by 2024. The third point, previously hinted at by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is for all crude production to be processed nationally for the domestic market by 2024. The plan states that no more crude oil will be exported by the end of this administration.

Fuel Theft Still Burdens PEMEX

In 3Q21, PEMEX's economic losses caused by fuel theft amounted to almost US$9.7 million. Clandestine fuel theft grew 1.93 percent compared to 3Q20, PEMEX reported. The NOC said that between Jan. and Sep. 2021, 7,994 fuel theft events were detected. In the same period of 2020, the company recorded 7,842. Most of the 2021 cases involve gasoline and diesel, although the remaining 1,712 involved LPG. This resulted in significant financial troubles for PEMEX. 

Eni Gears Up to Increase Its Mexican Offshore Production

Italian oil giant Eni reported that its Area 1 development received a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which can greatly increase the oil produced at the company’s frontrunning project off the shore of Tabasco. The Area 1 project consists of the Miztón, Amoca and Tecoalli fields, which contain around 2.1 MMboe, most of which is oil. Eni became Mexico’s first private operator to produce oil offshore in 2019. With the 90Mb/d FPSO, MIAMTE, the Italian operator hopes to boost its production figures in 1Q22.