PEMEX To Receive Deer Park On January 20

A PEMEX commission including Director General Octavio Romero is scheduled to travel to Texas next Thursday Jan. 20 to sign the final documents certifying the NOC’s complete ownership of the Deer Park refinery outside of Houston, according to sources quoted by Forbes. PEMEX has reached a labor agreement with the refinery’s current workers to make sure that the facility’s current staff can remain in place and guarantee operational stability; the only difference is that they will now be PEMEX workers instead of a Shell workforce. 

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Four Injured At PEMEX Plant Explosion

Four PEMEX workers were reportedly injured after an explosion was registered at the Agata Dehydration Plant located in Moloacán, Veracruz, reports La Jornada. The incident took place yesterday when the operation of a motor pump led a spark to reach a gas pocket located in an isolated section of the plant’s pipeline network. The victims were transferred to the regional hospital in Minatitlan to receive medical attention. 

Eni’s FPSO Reaches Mexican Waters

The FPSO “MIAMTE” arrived last week to Mexican waters to become part of Eni’s production infrastructure for its “Area 1” development, known also as AMT for its fields of Amoca, Mizton and Tecoalli. This area is famous for being the first private offshore field in Mexico to enter its productive phase in 2019. MIAMTE is expected to be integrated into the configuration of offshore platforms, pipelines and onshore delivery facilities that will allow Eni to continue increasing its production capacity as its field development progresses. MIAMTE has a crude processing capacity of 90,000b/d, a gas processing capacity of 75MMcf/d and a reported total storage capacity of between 700,000 and 900,000 barrels. This will add to the 15,000b/d currently being produced at AMT’s Mitzon field through the WHP-1 wellhead platform.

Mexico Reliance on US Gas Set to Increase After Record Year

In 2022, Mexico’s dependence on US natural gas is only set to increase. Information from EIA shows that US gas imports contributed 76 percent of Mexico’s total supply used for power production. Most of this gas arrived through US pipeline interconnections. Other factors that increase Mexico’s dependence on pipeline imports are the country’s dropping internal gas production, as well as its lower LNG imports from other areas.

PEMEX Balances Stability, Risk: Moody’s

Credit rating agency Moody’s published a report on the global energy industry that addresses previous criticisms of PEMEX but also compares it favorably to other NOCs around the world. Moody’s positive comparison reports that Mexico will not be holding national elections in 2022, which means that the NOC can be considered a relatively reliable asset shielded from political risk and instability inherent to electoral processes in the region. Presidential elections will take place in Brazil and Colombia throughout 2022, increasing market uncertainty for all oil and gas companies working in those countries due to the uncertain future of their NOCs as defined by potential presidential policies.