Pemex debt strategy at risk of unravelling
The Mexican firm had made some progress arresting its hefty debt pile, but the economic downturn and government obsession with upstream targets has started to take its toll
When President Andres Lopez Obrador romped to victory in Mexico’s 2018 election, one of his key pledges was to tackle state oil firm Pemex’s chronic debt problem. Total company debt had ballooned to over $100bn, rising at an annual rate of almost 14pc, while failing to halt rapidly declining crude production. At first, everything seemed to go according to plan. In 2019, Pemex managed to reduce its debt balance for the first time in 12 years, despite the government cancelling all bidding rounds, shunning foreign investment and saddling the NOC with the country’s upstream recovery programme. Pemex has until 2024 to revive national crude production to 2.4mn bl/d, mainly through the startup of 2
Also in this section
10 March 2026
By shutting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has cut exports of distillate-rich Middle Eastern crude, jet fuel and diesel, and is holding the energy market hostage
10 March 2026
Eni’s director for global gas and LNG portfolio, Cristian Signoretto, discusses how demand will respond to rising LNG supply, and how the company is expanding its own gas and LNG operations through disciplined, capital-efficient investments
9 March 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis sees increases in output from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan among others before region’s murky descent
9 March 2026
Energy sanctions are becoming an increasingly prominent tool of US foreign policy, with the country’s growth in oil and gas production allowing it to impose pressure on rivals without jeopardising its own energy security or that of its allies, argues Matthew McManus, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics
