Amy Stillman, Bloomberg News
MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 16 05 2022
Petroleos Mexicanos’ beleaguered mega-refinery project in Dos Bocas could run at least $4.7 billion over budget with just months to go before its grand opening.
Pemex, as the state-owned oil company is known, has budgeted $12.5 billion for the project through the end of 2022, and is expected to spend some $2 billion more on the project, according to company filings and a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
That raises the total project cost to $14.5 billion, sharply higher than the $9.8 billion estimated by Energy Minister Rocio Nahle in April.
The 340,000-barrel-a-day Dos Bocas plant — the crown jewel of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s nationalist goal of energy independence — has been beset with delays and ballooning costs since it was announced. AMLO plans to inaugurate the refinery, dubbed Olmeca, in July, though it won’t be operating by then.
Bloomberg reported in January that the project was running significantly over-budget and could fail to produce a single gallon of gasoline in 2022.
The project’s costs skyrocketed last year, in the lead-up to the refinery’s inauguration. Pemex’s originally budgeted about $2.2 billion for 2021, but that more than doubled to around $5.6 billion, according to a company filing. The company is expected to hold a board meeting to discuss the Dos Bocas project soon, according to the person.
A Pemex spokesperson and Finance Ministry spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
bloomberg.com 05 13 2022
