The presidential plan to stop exporting oil is being displaced. The high international prices of hydrocarbons are being taken advantage of by the state-owned Pemex and the company has decided to increase shipments abroad of Istmo crude, its most valuable hydrocarbon.
The latest data from the state company moves away from the discourse of shifting crude oil production to refineries. Last April Pemex increased light crude exports to levels not seen since November 1998, according to company records.
Last month, the oil company exported 351,000 barrels per day of Isthmus or light crude oil, a hydrocarbon that has a higher price in the market and that is usually better for use in its refineries, since they allow a greater amount of production of high-quality fuels. value, like gasoline.
The increase in the shipment of light crude oil occurs amid the high oil prices that have been registered since the end of last year due to the restriction in supply and the increase in demand after the economic crisis generated by the pandemic, and which received another boost due to the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.
Pemex has gradually increased shipments of light crude. The last federal administration but the Obradorista government resumed its commercialization in December 2019 with exports of 48,000 barrels per day during that month.
But now, the export of Istmo –or light– crude oil already triples the shipments that were made during the same month last year. In April 2021, Pemex exported 114,000 barrels per day of this oil, according to company records.
Despite the fact that the refineries of the state company work better with light crude oil, the federal administration has decided to increase exports of this oil, which is generally priced between three and five dollars above Maya or heavy crude, the one that produces and markets the most. the state one.
Last month, Istmo crude exports were paid on average at 101.5 dollars per barrel, compared to 99 dollars for Maya crude.
Pemex would have opted for the to offset spending resulting from tax incentives that have been applied to gasoline in recent months to contain prices to the public and avoid higher inflation, company sources said.
The shipments, the data from the state company show, have been directed towards the Asian market -mainly India-, a destination where it reduced its exports at the beginning of this year in the midst of its plans to increase production in its six refineries and after the announcement that the state company would gradually suspend oil exports until they are completely eradicated in 2023, once the Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco comes into operation.
In April, Pemex sent 330,000 barrels of crude oil to the Asian market, a figure more than double that of a month earlier, when exports to that destination were 160,000 barrels a day.
The state-owned Pemex usually sends light crude to its three refineries that produce more fuel oil and thus avoid an even greater production of this refined: Madero, Tula and Salina Cruz. The latter went out of operations for a week last April and, due to the lack of storage infrastructure, the oil company’s administration chose to export the oil that was destined for this complex, according to sources related to the issue.
The strategy of increasing crude oil exports has already given some results to the state company. During the first quarter of the year, the high international prices of crude oil led the oil company to report profits of 122,494 million pesos,
