After announcing a temporary occupation at the end of last year, the López Obrador government issued a "declaration of utility" in February that ordered PMI (Pemex's commercial arm) to request the Ministry of Energy the plant's expropriation procedure.
The Mexican government ordered the expropriation and final seizure of a hydrogen plant belonging to French company Air Liquide in a Pemex refinery in Tula (Hidalgo), this according to a presidential decree published this Thursday in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
In December, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the temporary occupation of the hydrogen production plant called U-3400, located in the Tula refinery, in favor of Pemex Industrial Transformation. Back then the government argued reasons of "common benefit" to order such occupation.
"The immediate execution of this expropriation decree is ordered and, consequently, the definitive occupation of the U-3400 hydrogen production plant," says the new decree.
After announcing the temporary occupation at the end of last year, the Mexican government issued a "declaration of utility" in February, ordering PMI (Pemex's commercial) to request the Ministry of Energy to begin the expropriation procedure.
The new decree indicates that the filing of any means of defense by the company "does not suspend the immediate execution" of the measures and that PMI must cover an amount of compensation in terms of the Expropriation Law, but does not detail an amount.
"Within ten business days following notification of this decree, interested parties may resort to the judicial procedure referred to in article 11 of the Expropriation Law, with the sole purpose of contesting the amount of compensation," the decree adds.
The government of President López Obrador, inaugurated in December 2018 and ending this October, has sought the country's self-sufficiency in fuels with million-dollar investments in refining.
To justify the measures on the U-3400 plant, Sener said that the Tula refinery's dependence on hydrogen provided by a third party put the production of gasoline and diesel at the facility "at risk."
