LatinNews Daily - 28 February 2024

*Mexico’s state-run oil company Pemex has released new figures which show the company made a net profit of M$106.9bn (US$6.25bn) in the fourth quarter of 2023, up from a net loss of M$95.6bn in the same period of the previous year and a net loss of M$79.1bn in the previous quarter. According to Pemex, this result was due to a reduction in other net costs, a reversal of the deterioration of fixed assets, a decrease in the cost of sales, and a decrease in taxes and duties, which was offset by the decrease in total sales. This comes after Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a presidential decree on 13 February ordering that Pemex did not have to pay its profit-sharing duty (DUC) for the fourth quarter of 2023 and first month of this year. In terms of production, crude and condensate production edged up to 1.86m barrels a day compared with 1.85m in the previous quarter and from 1.80m in Q4 2022. Pemex noted that its debt had decreased by 14.2% as compared to the end of 2022, citing support from the federal government and the appreciation of the peso against the US dollar. As of 31 December 2023, the company’s debt stood at M$1.79trn, or US$106.1bn.