Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Stefanie Eschenbacher, Reuters

MEXICO CITY
EnergesNet.com 05 11 2022

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday instructed state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to reveal information aboutalleged bribes paid by Vitol, the world’s largest independent energy trader.

“Apparently, the information about who received those bribes is already known,” Lopez Obrador said during a regular news conference. “We’re going to ask Pemex to report on this today.”

Pemex later issued a statement saying it had been pressing for the names of people who had taken bribes, but that Vitol had told the Mexican firm it did not have them.

The Mexican company noted that in February 2021 it had broadened a lawsuit filed against Vitol in December 2020 over the alleged bribery, and had added further evidence to the lawsuit at various intervals up to May 2022.

Reuters revealed last year that Pemex had deepened investigations into the matter. [nL1N2L501K]

Pemex also canceled several contracts it considered unfavorable and banned new business with the energy trader. read more

Pemex took the decision after it and Vitol (VITOLV.UL) had spent months re-negotiating some of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts.

Lopez Obrador did not clarify whether Vitol had provided the names of the officials who allegedly received the bribes or whether internal investigations had yielded them.

Vitol declined to comment. It has previously said that interactions with customers are usually bound by a duty of confidentiality, and that it always cooperates with the relevant authorities.

Since last year, the world’s major independent energy traders have faced increased scrutiny globally for alleged corruption after years of investigations into bribes of public officials in several countries in Latin America.

Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Bernard Orr

reuters.com 05 10 2022