Import of fuels from Pemex grows faster than local production

The complaint that the Marketing and Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) area made to the Production sub-directorate of the subsidiary Industrial Transformation about a lower production of fuels by the company that led to shortages as of April, is observed in the rise in imports above production, for example, foreign purchases of jet fuel increased almost 92% in one year, against a 0.7% drop in production, and in liquefied gas the increase was almost 30% in imports against a reduction of 8.9% in production, while in diesel, purchases increased 55% and production only 47%, to supply the growing demand.

According to the Energy Information System of the Ministry of Energy, between April and July (which is the last month available) an average of 61,577 barrels per day of jet fuel was imported by Pemex, against the daily average of 32,080 barrels per day for the same span of last year.

Meanwhile, this fuel from the kerosene family, which is sold almost entirely to Airports and Auxiliary Services (ASA), produced 29,274 barrels per day, against the average of 29,471 barrels per day from January to April last year, which which implies that there was even a drop of 0.67% in year-on-year production in this period.

This can be explained because between April and July 2021, the average price of crude oil was 65.28 dollars per barrel, while this year the average price of the Mexican export mix rose to 103.23 dollars per barrel, an increase of 1.5 times. the price, which led to the need for public revenue to maintain exports above one million barrels per day on average for this period, despite the government’s commitment to gradually lower them to use the oil in the National Refining System.

In the case of liquefied gas, imports reached 73,006 barrels per day in the average of these four months, which increased 30% in relation to the previous year. Meanwhile, the production of this derivative on average reached 83,465 barrels per day, which implied a reduction of 8.9% in the production of this fuel used by seven out of 10 households.

And purchases abroad of diesel reached an average volume between April and July of 198,304 barrels per day, which meant an increase of 55% in relation to the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, the production of diesel by Pemex Industrial Transformation was 154,699 barrels per day in this period, with an increase of 47%, eight percentage points slower than imports.

Thus, the total production of oil products reported by the company in this period was 890,244 barrels per day, more than 100,000 barrels per day higher than imports, which were 784,151 barrels per day, but with a year-on-year increase of 19%, while that the increase in foreign purchases was 28 percent in this period.

Finally, it should be noted that the production of gasoline has continued to rise, although imports exceed it by 1.6 times.

karol.garcia@eleconomista.mx