What do we do with Pemex?
What do we do with Pemex? A group of journalists asked a high-level official. "Shut down the refineries," he said. To our astonished expressions, he explained that the entire refining system in Mexico was built around Cantarell, a light oil field in the Campeche Sound. This group of wells once produced 2.2 million barrels per day; today it produces only 61,000. Of the six refineries prior to Dos Bocas—Minatitlán, Cadereyta, Madero, Salina Cruz, Tula, and Salamanca—only the latter makes sense to reconfigure to process heavy oil, which is what we have in the country today. The only refinery currently reporting a profit to Pemex is Deer Park, located in Texas, far from the union and with relatively up-to-date technology. The idea of partnering with Shell Oil Company on this refinery outside of Mexico came from the Carlos Salinas administration, and Pemex bought Shell's stake during the López Obrador administration.
Pemex is currently the federal government's biggest financial burden. During López Obrador's administration, more than 2.2 trillion pesos were invested in the company, 4.7 times more than during Peña Nieto's administration. Just over half, 1.16 trillion, was net resource transfers; the remainder was tax forgiveness, and yet, according to the latest quarterly report, the company continues to make losses.
Claudia Sheinbaum's government knows what Pemex is suffering from (obesity and obsolescence) and knows what treatment is required (weight loss and limb amputation). The underlying problem, however, is political.
On the one hand, the Obradorist movement turned Pemex into the flagship of the rescue of national sovereignty. On the other, it faces a powerful and wealthy union. From any external perspective, it seems absurd to pin national self-esteem on an unproductive and corrupt company, to confuse energy sovereignty with the idea of a company conceived 100 years ago.
Pemex is today a shackle tied to the feet of the national economy. If the company is not restructured in the coming months (and we already know what restructuring a company means: closing unproductive areas, reducing personnel, and adjusting spending), the day is not far off when the choice will have to be made between maintaining Pemex or maintaining social programs. To give an idea of the scale of the problem Pemex represents, the country's entire railway plan, which involves the renovation of 18,000 kilometers of tracks, would cost 1.8 trillion pesos, 80 percent of what was invested in Pemex during the previous six-year term.
What do we do with Pemex? We urgently need a national debate where we place energy sovereignty where it belongs (which activities and processes the State must control and which are secondary), where the future of the country, not that of the union, is the priority.
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