Human Resources and Social Responsibility at PEMEX

Luís Vielma Lobo, Founder of CBM Ingeniería Exploración y Producción, is a veteran of Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA, where he served as the head of Exploration and Production before leaving to establish his business in Mexico. When discussing the idea that Pemex is an over-staed organization, Vielma Lobo drew the comparison with PDVSA during his time in the organization. At its peak in the 1990s, PDVSA was producing 3.4 million bbl/d with 52,000 employees, while Pemex today produces 2.6 million bbl/day with just under 150,000. However, as Vielma Lobo points out, the mandates of the two companies are very dierent: “Mexico’s vision for Pemex is for the company to be more than an oil company; it is a company that takes its social responsibility seriously. This social responsibility consists of making money that the country requires for its social programmes, and that money is collected through taxes. The other way that it helps the country is through providing employment.”

Vielma Lobo compares this attitude to PDVSA’s stance when he was head of E&P: “We were clear that we wanted PDVSA to be a successful business, and compete with the world’s leading oil companies, and give Venezuela the best of our abilities. But we were also clear that we did not want PDVSA to become an employment vehicle for the country. Getting a position at the company was tough, as we had a rigorous selection process. A lot of people didn’t want the business to be handled this way, but at the end of the day we turned PDVSA into a very successful business using this strategy.” However, when employment figures of the two NOCs are compared to population size, Pemex employs a smaller percentage of the population than PDVSA does of the Venezuelan population.

“Pemex’s challenge is not its number of employees,” says Vielma Lobo. “It is making sure that the 150,000 are organized in order to maximize eciency.”