By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

In the month of April, Mexico’s state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos’ (Pemex) debt to suppliers increased by more than 84 percent compared to the previous month and to almost twice the comparable figure five months ago.

According to the company’s own statistics, released in a quarterly report, Pemex’s debt to suppliers and contractors went from 51.196 billion pesos at the end of November 2021 to 94.544 billion pesos in April, representing a whopping 84.6 percent increase.

In addition, Pemex acknowledged, the company has un-invoiced outstanding debts for contracted work and materials amounting to 18.110 billion pesos, 573 percent more than the 2.689 billion pesos worth of un-invoiced debt in November.

As for Pemex payments that were made to suppliers, the company registered 463.486 billion pesos in April, 14.2 percent less than the 540.528 billion pesos it paid out last November.

Among the companies to which Pemex owes money are Baker Hughes, Cemex, Blue Marine, CFE Basic Supply, Cotemar, Diavaz, GE Oil and Gas, Halliburton, Jaguar Exploration and Production, and Siemens.

Energy expert Arturo Carranza explained that despite the fact that the government continues to transfer funds to Pemex on a regular basis in an effort to reduce its outstanding debt of about $116 billion (Pemex is the most indebted oil company in the world), the state-run oil giant cannot even generate enough income to maintain its current red numbers and is thus sinking further and further into debt.

“This model that Petróleos Mexicanos is following is not allowing it to generate the necessary cash flow it needs to be able to assume debt obligations on its own,” Carranza said.

“Pemex’s business model, which is framework for how the company participates in the entire value chain of the industry, is not efficient because its contractual models do not allow it to complement or compete with the private sector.”

Carranza said that Pemex is stuck in a bottleneck.

“By having such a high debt with suppliers, it obviously cannot attract suppliers that offer the best conditions,” he said.

In addition, Pemex’s ever-increasing debt prevents it from engaging in further exploration and production expansion, and does not allow it to take full advantage of the opportunities of higher international oil prices, he said.