Pemex injects 5.8 billion pesos into Dos Bocas to produce gasoline before the elections – El Financiero

Mexican Petroleum (Pemex) injected 5.8 billion pesos to the Olmeca refinery during the first quarter of the year, with the expectation that it can begin operations during May.

The capital contribution that Dos Bocas received between January and March exceeded by 26 percent all the profits obtained by Pemex during that period, according to the report sent this Friday, April 26 to the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV).

When will Dos Bocas produce gasoline?

“It is estimated that in the month of May (it could begin) the production of diesel for marketing and during the summer we have the first gasoline productions (that meet) the quality required by the country,” he said in a conference with investors. Octavio Romero Oropezageneral director of Pemex.

He added that, during the second half of the year, full operation could be expected at maximum capacity. the Dos Bocas refineryonce progress is made in the infrastructure for product development and the reliability and supply of the project’s auxiliary services are ensured.

“We are getting closer to closing the foreign dependency gap in terms of fuel, thus fulfilling the self-sufficiency strategy through greater national production,” Oropeza stressed.

The 2023-2037 Crude Oil and Petroleum Products Prospect published by the Ministry of Energy estimates that the Olmeca refinery will process in its first year of life an average of 204 thousand barrels of crude oil per daywhich will represent 16.4 percent of the country’s oil production.

Dos Bocas and its history of broken promises

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the general director of Pemex have given different dates for the entry into operations of Dos Bocas. However, none were fulfilled.

For example, at the inauguration of the refinery on July 1, 2022, he promised that operations would begin by December of that year; however, Rocío Nahle, former Secretary of Economyclarified that he was only referring to a testing phase.

In January 2023, the former secretary declared that by July 1 of that year the first loading of the refinery would take place, with the aim of commemorating the electoral victory of President López Obrador, while by September of that same year it would already be processing at its maximum capacity, that is, 340 thousand barrels per day. A promise that was not fulfilled either.

Although there were more promises made known throughout 2023, in January 2024, Octavio Romero Oropeza declared in a conference with investors that the refinery would begin operations at the end of that same month, although a few weeks later, he postponed this date to March.

Now, the most up-to-date promise from the Government is that the Olmeca refinery will begin operations a few days before the presidential elections.

So far, the oil company recognizes that the cost of the Dos Bocas refinery exceeds the 17 billion dollarsmore than double what was originally planned, that is, 8 billion dollars.