MEXICO CITY (El Universal).— Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) extended its reign as the most indebted oil company in the past six years, with liabilities standing at 97,309 million dollars.
At the end of the third quarter of 2024, the financial commitments of the company now directed by Víctor Rodríguez Padilla exceed those of companies such as Shell, Chevron, Equinor, Repsol, BP, Total, Exxon, and even those of other state companies, such as Brazilian Petrobras, Russian Gazprom, Saudi Aramco or PetroChina, according to their financial reports.
“Pemex has invested in the refining sector, where profit margins are very small, and has ceased to be a company that is committed to the extraction of crude oil, with a production platform in the order of 1.5 million barrels per day, the youngest in 45 years,” mentioned Gonzalo Monroy, general director of the consulting firm GMEC. “This, combined with operational and security problems and agency ratings, has caused the company to encounter problems refinancing and having cash flow, and this is why the debt continues to skyrocket.”
Although Pemex’s debt in the last six-year period was reduced by 8%, to 97 billion dollars, there were companies such as Petrobras, BP, PetroChina, Chevron and Total that in the same period reduced their liabilities by 69%, 45%, 34 %, 33% and 19%, respectively, by benefiting from the impact of the armed conflicts of recent years that drove up international crude oil prices, as well as from greater efficiency in their operations.
old problem
The challenges due to Pemex’s large debt are not exclusive to the past six years.
In fact, Pemex became the most indebted oil company in previous six-year terms. In Felipe Calderón’s period, liabilities went from 46 billion in 2007 to 60 billion in, while under Enrique Peña Nieto they reached 105 billion dollars in 2018.
Thus, the company reached first place among its international peers between 2012 and 2016, surpassing companies such as Petrobras and Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which has stopped making financial information public.
Ramsés Pech, energy sector analyst at Caraiva y Asociados, explained that it is the most indebted because it has been used by governments as petty cash. “Sometimes to complete the country’s current expenses, and other times as a tax collector. All they do is kick the can down the road, and just refinance with different interest rates. The last few months have been on the rise,” he noted.
Expected situation
This situation was recognized by José Ángel Gurría in 2020, when he was secretary of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
“Why is it that Pemex has 100 billion dollars of debt? Because we took away about 70%, not of his profits, not of what he earned, but of the gross income he received. We even generated an artificial loss for the company,” said the former head of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) during the six-year term of Ernesto Zedillo.
Harvest more negative records
Experts consider that the energy reform only aggravated the situation of Pemex
The wrong solution
For Miriam Grunstein, an academic at the Mexico Center at Rice University, Pemex’s situation worsened with the energy reform, since the governments did not dedicate themselves to the activities that really gave it value, and in recent years they opted for refining, a business in which money is lost.
Complicated situation
In fact, Pemex is stopping exporting crude oil and, therefore, receiving cash resources, while increasing refining levels, generating more fuel oil and losses. The above leaves fewer resources for the treasury, while the company received support from the previous government for 1.1 billion pesos and exemptions from paying taxes, say energy experts.
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