Crude-oil processing at Pemex’s six domestic refineries averaged 792,303 b/d in 2023, down nearly 3% from 2022 and well short of the company’s 900,000 b/d target, the Mexican state-owned oil company said this week.
Pemex reached or exceeded the 900,000 b/d goal only in April, when its refineries processed an average of 914,000 b/d. That was the highest rate so far in President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s term, which ends later this year.
Revitalizing Pemex’s aging infrastructure and increasing the company’s fuel production has been among the administration’s key goals.
Pemex said its 315,000-b/d Tula refinery led the company’s fleet in 2023, processing an average of 190,967 b/d of oil, up 6.4% from a year ago.
The company’s 190,000 b/d Madero refinery had the lowest processing rate last year, running at an average rate of 75,646 b/d, down 22% from the same period 2022.
Pemex said it produced an average of 252,200 b/d of gasoline, 134, 562 b/d of diesel, and 36,259 b/d of jet fuel last year. Gasoline and diesel production were down 7% and 8.1%, respectively, from 2022.
The refineries also produced an average of 260,702 b/d of fuel oil in 2023, accounting for 32% of the company’s total output.
Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero Oropeza in early January said he expects Pemex to process an average of 1.5 million b/d of crude oil this year, including output from its new, but still not fully operations, 340,000 b/d Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco state and its Deer Park refinery near Houston.
He said he expects Pemex’s six older refineries will account for 1 million b/d of that total.
Lopez Obrador has said he wants Mexico to become self-sufficient in fuel production before he leaves office in September. Pemex has projected the country will import an average of 300,000 b/d of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel this year, before imports fall to an average of 62,000 b/d in September.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
–Reporting by Karla Omaña, [email protected]; Editing by Jeff Barber, [email protected]
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