President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that although the federal government already has the federal resources to liquidate the purchase of the Deer Park refinery, the operation will be carried out in January. “We have the money,” the president said during his morning conference. “We preferred to pay this year, but it was already agreed to pay it (the debt) in January,” he added.
Shell announced in May that it would sell its 50,005% stake in the 302,800 barrels per day (bpd) refinery to partner Pemex for $ 596 million. But the deal was made conditional on the deal receiving approval from US federal regulators.
López Obrador explained that the debt settlement was delayed because the US government asked for more information. “With great transparency we delivered everything, where the money was going to come from, the origin of the money, why did we decide to buy the refinery, in short, the whole story, and that is why we did not have the time we wanted to pay for it this year,” he explained .
The US government last week authorized the purchase of Shell’s Deer Park refinery from Pemex. After the approval, López Obrador thanked President Joe Biden and the national security organizations of the American Union for allowing the transaction.
The operation was reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national security group chaired by the Treasury, which gave the final go-ahead.
The purchase of Deer Park by Pemex, one of the world’s most indebted oil companies, is part of the López Obrador government’s plan to achieve self-sufficiency in the consumption of fuels that the country requires.
With information from Reuters
