Thus, the refineries as a whole are working at 50.4% of their capacity. In 2018 they did so at 37.8%. In total, the six complexes can process up to 1.6 million barrels per day. But the idea that they can do it is still distant: the six refineries have major operational problems and this is leaving the state company with huge losses.
But despite the progress, the goal dictated much more. Since 2019, the first year of the Obrador government, the main spokesmen for energy policy said that the refineries would process between 900,000 and one million barrels per day by the end of that year. So the goal from year to year was growing, but it has never been fulfilled. The maximum number of crude oil processing in the refineries was last April, 889,000 barrels per day.
And by 2023 the president has already set a new goal: he says that Pemex will refine 1.2 million barrels per day. The numbers are not enough to visualize that this can be accomplished.
The progress is also shown in the gasoline production figures: Pemex will end this year producing an average of around 272,000 barrels of gasoline per day, its highest figure since 2017. This figure does not take into account what was obtained in the Deer Park complex, purchased last January, but whose production does not fully reach the country.
Regarding gasoline production, the government has not set a goal in numbers, but it has set a bigger one: it has promised to achieve self-sufficiency in fuels before the end of the six-year term. Mexico demands between 700,000 and 800,000 barrels of gasoline per day. The production of the state barely covers a quarter of it.
The promise continues in force in the political discourse, but not in the plans of the state: In his latest business plan, he acknowledges that the cessation of purchases from abroad will not be possible, at least not in the short term. The company says in that document that three years after the end of the six-year term -in 2027- 22% of the gasoline consumed here will still be imported or 5% if what is obtained in the Texan complex of DeerPark.
But with the great efforts to launch a business that has never been profitable for Pemex – refining – the state company has seen its finances hit hard. While the big refining companies have seen record profits, Pemex has lost for each barrel it refines –7 dollars during the past quarter–. Pemex Transformación Industrial is stealing the oil company’s opportunity to increase its profits, like the rest of its peers, taking advantage of high oil prices.
Next year, according to the forecasts of the big banks, crude oil will touch high prices again, although below those seen at the beginning of this year. But even if Pemex continues with exports –to add more foreign currency to its line of income–, the intention with which the six-year term began seems to continue: the state company will continue to bet on refining.