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By KELIN DILLON

The construction of Mexico’s Dos Bocas refinery will take more time than expected to complete, and as such, will require an increased budget to help finish the project, said the Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Board of Directors.

The refinery is now set to cost the nation up to $12.4 billion, over $3.5 billion more than estimated last year.

The project is also set to generate less revenue despite its cost increase, as Pemex’s is set to go down 6.6 percent in its share of the gasoline market and 4 percent in the case of diesel.

According to Pemex’s 2020 annual report, the refinery has thus far only achieved 19.5 percent of its physical and financial completion as of December 2020, leaving over four-fifths of the project yet to come to fruition.

Previously, in October of the same year, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) reported the project had “an overall progress of 24 percent,” figures contradicted by the state-owned gas company’s report.

Figures from El Universal newspaper estimate that the Dos Bocas refinery will require a further 116 billion pesos during 2022 to get the project over the finish line, bringing the total cost of construction to over 250.5 billion pesos.