The new Dos Bocas refinery by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) began tests to produce diesel with an ultra-low sulfur content, which paves the way to increase national production in the face of growing domestic demand.
“We are going to start testing the diesel plant, we are going to bring an intermediate liquid from the Madero refinery, something like a crude diesel with a lot of sulfur that cannot be processed in Madero, we are going to bring it to Dos Bocas to convert it into ultra-low sulfur diesel“said the general director of Petróleos Mexicanos, Octavio Romero, during the morning conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“In the next weeks We are going to enter with regular gasoline and later with Magna gasoline, So we still have a few weeks left,” he added.
The tests in the Dos Bocas refinery of the company, located in Tabasco, begin at a time when domestic demand hits a 6-month high amid strong economic activity.
What does diesel production at the Dos Bocas refinery mean?
Besides, Global markets are struggling due to rising inventories and falling profit margins after a warm winter reduced demand for heating oil.
Increased domestic production means Mexico could import less. In March, about 60 percent of all diesel consumed in the country was imported from other markets, including the United States.
Pemex wait to the production of its refineries reaches almost 1.5 million barrels per day at the end of the year, and that in September around 1.2 million barrels per day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel will be produced, Romero said.
The company also plans to seek approval to explore 45 new wells during the next administration, and estimates that total oil reserves will be around 7.5 billion barrels by the end of this year, he added.
Pemex reported a slight profit in the first quarter
It is expected that a new coking plant in the rPemex refinery, in Tula, Hidalgo, start operating in July, while construction of a second coking plant in Salinas Cruz, Oaxaca, will be half-finished in September, according to Romero.
The projections come a week after Pemex reported a slight first-quarter profit despite falling production, while government support helped shore up the debt-ridden company. Production has fallen to less than half of what it was two decades ago.
Pemex is one of the biggest challenges that the next presidency of Mexico will inherit. Reduce your debt of almost $102 billion—the largest of any oil company in the world—is key to boosting production, given that money that could go toward repairing obsolete infrastructure is being used to cover interest payments.
