President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made it one of his goals to eliminate shipments of crude oil abroad, but those same sales have become the last boost for the finances of the state-owned Pemex as tensions in Europe continue. east and the international price of crude continues above 100 dollars.
Pemex has slightly reduced its shipments abroad during the first quarter of the year, but the income it has obtained from its sale is the highest for nearly eight years, according to the state company’s own records.
In March –the most recent data– the company added revenue from exports equivalent to 2,813 million dollars, the highest amount since September 2014. In volume, Pemex has sent a little less than the average of the previous year, which stood at 1,018 million barrels per day. In the third month of the year, shipments were 905,000 barrels per day.
Pemex shipments abroad have averaged above what was projected by the Treasury in the Economic Precriteria 2023, the most recent document that sets the pace of progress of the economic assumptions contained in the budget for the year.
It is not the first time that the oil company’s sales to other countries have exceeded what was proposed by the federal government. In the first assumptions of the six-year term, the state-owned company will export 39% of its production this year, but the latest numbers indicate that the company has sent abroad around 50% of its production.
The goal of the federal government is to end all exports next year, once the Olmeca refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco comes into operation.
Industry analysts find two explanations as to why shipments have not stopped: the state-owned company does not yet have the refining capacity to use a large part of the crude it produces and high prices have made the federal administration change its strategy, all time that more resources are needed to deal with the gasoline subsidy.
The price of the Mexican export mix has not fallen below 90 dollars per barrel since last February 28, a few days after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Oil prices were already on an upward run as a result of the restriction in supply after the Covid pandemic, but the armed conflict gave the last push to raise the price. The national mixture has been about to touch the 120 dollars per barrel.
Shipments have benefited the state company. And they have led it to report the highest amount in about 18 years last quarter.
The injection of resources due to exports has had another effect: –valued this year at around 5,000 million dollars– at least in the short term. The federal government had announced that it would take charge of these payments until the last year of the six-year term to try to improve the company’s financial position.
