Lozoya Accuses EPN, Pump Prices Rise

Emilio Lozoya’s trial is beginning to heat up with former President Enrique Peña Nieto and former Finance Minister Luis Videgaray accused of involvement in the bribery scandal. PEMEX is continuing investment plans and gasoline prices have risen to pre-crash levels as lockdown measures eased and demand shot up.

All this and more in The Week in Oil and Gas!

CNH Approves Six Exploration Wells for PEMEX

PEMEX is pushing ahead with its production goals and has another six exploration plans approved by CNH that could require a total investment of US$1.125 billion. The plans foresee a base scenario of a minimum of six wells being drilled and a maximum of 16 on the six areas held by the NOC in Cuencas del Sureste.

The wells will be used to verify the existence of oil and gather more information on the petrochemical qualities of reserves on each block, Milenio explained.

EPN and Videgaray Implicated in Lozoya Scandal

Former PEMEX Director Emilio Lozoya, currently under investigation for accepting bribes by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, has accused former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and former Finance Minister Luis Videgaray of being involved in the bribery scandal. Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero explained in a video that Lozoya had accused Peña Nieto and Videgaray of ordering him to use hundreds of millions of pesos to fund the former president’s election campaign in 2012 and to bribe legislators to enact structural reforms, among other payoffs.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he wanted both Peña Nieto and predecessor Felipe Calderón to testify on the case, even though Calderón was not mentioned by name in the Attorney General’s video. President López Obrador did not suggest their guilt but said it was important to hear their version so the country could get to the bottom of the scandal.

Prices at the Pump Reach Pre-Crash Levels

Oil prices at stations across Mexico rose 5.3 percent in July to mark a third consecutive run of monthly increases and reach levels not seen since before April’s historic oil price crash. CRE figures noted that prices overall had risen by an average of MX$0.95 (US$0.04) per liter to MX$18.60 (US$0.84) per liter.

PEMEX gas sales fell by over 70 percent in April compared to the same month of the previous year. This drastic drop added to the NOC’s woes and helped push it toward a 2Q20 loss of some US$2 billion, adding to the historic US$23 billion lost in 1Q20. Other major companies also reported vast differences in year-on-year sales, as mobility was restricted to face the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with restrictions being relaxed, prices have risen again.