Sheky Espejo, Platts S&P Global

MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 03 12 2024

The main opposition candidate for Mexico’s upcoming presidential elections, Xóchitl Gálvez, is promising if she wins the election to close two of the six existing refineries in the country to reduce the level of pollution in cities.

Gálvez, who is backed by the PRI and PAN parties that ruled Mexico for over 80 years, also proposed to transform state-run oil and gas company Pemex into an energy company named Emex, which would be able to produce electricity using renewable sources.

“Within the first six months of my government, the refineries of Cadereyta, in Nuevo León and Madero, in Tamaulipas will be closed definitively,” Galvez said March 9 during a forum on climate.

Besides being a money-losing business, refining is increasingly harmful to people’s health, Gálvez said, adding that her main focus if she were to win the presidency would be the safety and health of the population.

During the current administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Pemex has lost Peso 900 billion ($53.5 billion) in its refining business, Gálvez said.

“Pemex is a very important company, but not more so than the lungs of your children,” Gálvez said, adding that eventually, all refineries in the world will close.

The government of Nuevo León has fought for a few years to get Pemex to reduce its emissions at the Cadereyta refinery. The environmental authorities of the state conducted a symbolic closure of the facility on March 2 after personnel impeded an inspection. Operations at the refinery were not affected.

After their proposed closures, the facilities of the Cadereyta and Madero refineries can be transformed into fuel storage terminals or used for carbon capture, Gálvez said. Other refineries in the country, like the one in Tula, must be upgraded so that their emissions are reduced, she added.

López Obrador has doubled down on the country’s refining strategy to reduce Mexico’s dependency on imports.

In January, Mexico imported 548,000 b/d of gasoline and 169,000 b/d of diesel, according to data from the energy secretariat. Pemex was the main importer, the data shows. Pemex’s gasoline production in January was 308,000 b/d and its diesel production stood at 193,000 b/d, the data shows.

Shift from Pemex to Emex

Gálvez said during the March 9 forum that Pemex must make a transition into an energy company, just like all the major exploration and production companies around the world, and become Mexican Energies, or Emex.

“Pemex could be at the forefront in geothermal energy as well as solar and wind,” she said, adding that this transition would help the company become profitable and help Mexico lower its methane emissions.

A UN report published by Reuters in February found that Pemex had had “large volumes” of methane emissions in 2023 from one of its main production complexes. This marked the second time that methane emissions had been spotted from Pemex’ Zaap project, part of Ku-Maloob-Zaap, the largest producing area in Mexico.

After the reports, Pemex denied any wrongdoing and said that the UN agency had confused the emissions for methane, when in fact they were nitrogen.

spglobal.com 03 11 2024