Despite the presidential speech and having presented a plan to stop crude shipments, the Ministry of Finance projects that the state-owned Pemex will continue to export oil in 2023.
The agency has estimated that the company will send abroad 764,000 barrels per day during the next year, according to what is contained in the Economic Precriteria 2023. This document marks the pace of progress of the economic assumptions contained in the budget for the year and advances some of the premises that will be taken into account for the estimates of the following year.
Stopping crude oil exports has become one of the president’s main premises to continue with his plans that seek for the state oil company to produce all or most of the gasoline consumed in the country. But the plan appears to be fading as refiners fail to significantly increase their crude processing – and therefore their production of petroleum products – and amid rising international oil prices.
The president endorsed his plan just a few days ago in his speech commemorating the oil expropriation.
Last December, Pemex said that during this year it plans to export only 435,000 barrels of oil per day, as a preliminary step to eliminate crude shipments a year later. The oil company, which has not been able to increase its production, significantly reduced its shipments of crude last January in an attempt to increase the use of its refining complexes, but already last February – the latest data available – due to the fact that It has not managed to increase the use of its refineries according to what was planned, according to sources from the state company.
The company has not said publicly that it will step back from its plan to cut crude sales, although February figures could signal this trend. But opting for it with the high prices of the Mexican mix – which has been between 90 and 100 dollars in recent months – could give your finances a break. While continuing with the injection of crude oil in the refineries could only delve into the division in charge of refining.
The Treasury has also projected a production of 1,820 million barrels per day for this year and 1,851 million per year for 2023. This last data could represent a first signal to reduce its medium-term goal towards the end of the six-year term.
The company, which has continuously reduced its goals and has not been able to meet any of its objectives set since the presidency, has set itself the goal of ending the six-year term with a production of at least 2 million barrels per day.
