LatinNews Daily - 19 March 2024

*Mexico’s state-run oil company Pemex is expected to process 1.7m barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil at its six local refineries by the end of the year, according to CEO Octavio Romero Oropeza. During a government event to commemorate the 86th anniversary of oil expropriation in Mexico, Romero declared that “the next government will receive a stronger Pemex, with growing production and reserves, with six rehabilitated refineries and two new ones ... with lower debt and fiscal responsibilities”. Romero stated that under President Andrés Manuél Lopez Obrador’s administration, “with a lower spending and a low price of crude oil, production increased; more than 100% of the reserves were replenished; and Pemex paid off more than M$23bn [US$1.36bn] of its debt by the end of 2023”. Pemex remains the world’s most indebted energy company, with debt standing at US$106.1bn at the end of 2023. Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential candidate of the ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) party said in a social media post on 18 March that the party would continue to strengthen Pemex and state-run electricity firm Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) “as strategic public enterprises, for the benefit of national development”.