Photo: Gabriel Côté

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Mexican Finance (Hacienda, or SHCP) Secretary Rogelio Ramírez de la O will need to earmark at least $8.9 billion of federal funds for the state-run oil company Petróleos Mexicanos’ (Pemex) refinery division between 2022 and 2024 in order for the country to become self-sufficent in gasoline production, according to a study conducted by the daily newspaper El Universal.

To meet the ever-growing national refined oil demands as promised by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) by the end of his six-year term, the government will have to budget, allocate or transfer the money to four refineries, including the still-not-functioning Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco and the Paraíso refinery in the same state, which in 2022 will have a budget of nearly $2.5 billion.

Another $2.5 billion will be needed for the Waste Utilization project of the Miguel Hidalgo Refinery in Tula, Hidalgo, between 2022 and 2023.

To keep all six refineries of the National Refining System (Tula, Minatitlán, Salamanca, Cadereyta, Salina Cruz and Madero), the study showed, Pemex Transformación Industrial (Pemex TRI) will need an additional $1.7 billion over the course of the next three years.

On Thursday, Sept. 2, Ramírez de la O said that the federal government will continue to support Pemex, but will not seek to change the law to directly guarantee the company’s debt.

Throughout his presidency, AMLO has repeatedly promised that Mexico will be self-sufficient in supplying gasoline and diesel by 2023.

“We are rebuilding the six Pemex refineries and building a new one in Dos Bocas so that by 2023 we will achieve self-sufficiency in gasoline and diesel,” he said last month.

Notwithstanding, Pemex service stations and other stations across the nation continue to rely heavily on imported fuel from Mexico’s demand of 558,000 barrels per day, with the country producing just 219,000 barrels a day.