The company's marketing arm, PMI, began in April to apply these cuts to crude oil supply contracts to clients in the United States, Asia and Europe to increase its availability for local processing and the production of oil products in the Aztec country.
Crude oil exports from the Mexican state-owned Pemex rose 34% in May compared to April, to 910,801 barrels per day (bpd), to return to being closer to the levels that have become more common for the company, which had cut sales abroad supposedly to allocate barrels to their local refineries.
Reuters reported in April that Petróleos Mexicanos was reversing planned cuts to crude exports of at least 330,000 bpd scheduled for May, amid lower-than-expected oil demand from the company's local refineries.
The company's marketing arm, PMI, began in April to apply these cuts to crude oil supply contracts to clients in the United States, Asia and Europe to increase its availability for local processing and the production of oil products in the Aztec country.
According to data from the state-owned company released on Monday at the end of the afternoon, while crude oil exports increased, the combined processing of its six local refineries in operation fell in the fifth month of the year to 842,043 bpd, its lowest level in 2024 and 11% less than in April, but 11% more year-on-year.
Pemex is facing difficulties in maintaining its crude oil processing figures in its refineries in Mexico, with a combined capacity of 1.6 million bpd, despite having at times doubled the levels seen in the first two years of the current administration. .
The company has managed to increase its processing from an average of 612,000 bpd in 2018, the year in which Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power, but it even plummeted to 590,000 bpd in 2020 in his first years of management, something that the company He says it was due to the serious condition in which he received the plants and for which he has spent billions of dollars in rehabilitation.
Despite multiple promises, Pemex has not managed to start up and produce its new 340,000 bpd Olmeca refinery, and is still a long way from doing so.
Its CEO, Octavio Romero, said last Friday that it will be full steam ahead in July and will add processing of 163,000 bpd by the end of the year.
With a financial debt of more than US$ 100,000 million, Pemex would have taken advantage of the rebound in crude oil prices since sales abroad totaled US$ 2,098 million in May, the highest for a month during 2024. The export basket of the State averaged US$74.32 per barrel.
With less processing at home, Pemex had to once again increase its imports of liquefied gas, gasoline, diesel and other products in May to 670,000 bpd, 11% more than in April, but similar to May 2023. Its oil production was of 833,280 bpd, 11% less than in April and the lowest in the entire year.
Meanwhile, crude oil and condensate production was stable compared to April to average 1.79 million bpd, although lower than the average for all of 2024 of 1.8 million bpd.
Pemex has admitted it is struggling to maintain production amid a field decline. Romero reiterated last week a goal for the end of the year of 1.85 million bpd.
Crude oil-only production, which has been at the lowest levels in more than four decades for months, increased slightly in May to 1.51 million bpd from 1.50 million bpd in April.
The oil company's hydrocarbon pumping has been gradually declining from its peak of 3.4 million bpd two decades ago due to the depletion of resources, lack of investment, as well as important new discoveries.
