Secretary Luz Elena González stated yesterday that between 2012 and 2018, as a result of the privatizing reform of 2013 by former President Peña Nieto, the Mexican oil sector suffered terrible neglect. It also seems certain that a lot of that went into corruption whose responsible parties we still do not know. Additionally, 90 oil areas were privatized, some already with discovered deposits, under the argument that the private sector would reverse the decline in reserves.
Yesterday, the new leaders of the octogenarian Pemex came out to explain how they will solve the problems of the oil company that has yet to mature. Rodríguez is recognized in the industry as a person who can use logic to help Pemex. What is essential is that we all understand the narrative that continues to be present in the government and that benefits no one, except for political experts in the art of word weaving.
Once again, let's give them the benefit of the doubt; at least now the plan makes more sense. What’s coming? Production increased by 50 percent in the last six-year term, according to the U.S. government. What should arrive is a new project that seems to point to the logical: doing things that sell for higher prices; in technical terms, creating more added value in products that serve to make all the plastics you have nearby; more natural gas is also coming and an environmental project that we all appreciate, to eliminate the pollution generated, for example, by oil platforms. Have you seen them? They did not reach that turning point with the 'privatization'; they just started.
The secretary is right about many facts, but she knows deep down that it has been a while since a new regime replaced the PRI. There is an urgent need for a developed energy sector and an adult Pemex that, like the rest of the relevant oil corporates in the world, responds to its owners, who are you, rather than looking for excuses every six-year term to explain why it does not achieve its goals, or why it arrived late.
Extracting crude oil at 25 dollars and selling it for more than 60; but understand that this cannot be done without neglecting the production of natural gas that the CFE needs to generate electricity and the industry in general to produce plastic, polyester for clothing and shoes… or electronics. 'We have the instruction from the President of the Republic to increase natural gas production given our high dependency on imports,' she emphasized yesterday. More or less true.
The area covered by those 90 oil areas sounds like a lot for those who haven’t looked at the other side of the Gulf of Mexico, where the wells number in the thousands and the areas are vast. It is true, undeniable. To this productive decline has been added an excessive indebtedness; Pemex's debt grew by 129.5 percent in 10 years. Because the 'turned-off' platforms simply do not burn methane and saturate the planet with it, raising temperatures in cities.
Everything is based on a new regime that will collect taxes from the company for all of you differently and should allow it to 'breathe' and pay its suppliers, among other things. This Wednesday, the entire team appeared together: President Claudia Sheinbaum; Secretary of Energy, Luz Elena González; the Undersecretary of Finance who collects taxes from Pemex, Edgar Amador, and the director of Pemex, Víctor Rodríguez Padilla.
What they presented yesterday announces the intention to correct, among others, a mistake that previous PRI administrations of the last century made that split the company into at least four parts: Pemex, responsible for extracting oil and gas from the subsoil; Pemex, which is in charge of utilizing the gas and dividing it into its chemical parts; Pemex, which produces gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and butane gas, and finally, Pemex Petrochemical, which could be the wealthiest but became the poorest.
It’s as if in a taco place they put the taco maker in one room, the waiter in another, the cashiers on one side, and throw the salsa maker somewhere else. Each does what they can and all think they do it very well, but only the waiter knows what the customer thinks; no one pays attention to him and the business ends up with only losses. Now, the whole business will respond to the strategy of a technician like Víctor Rodríguez; there will be no other person to point to.
He knows how important it is to produce oil, the most profitable business. That 'little' flame that burns at the top of a chimney is sending CO2 into the atmosphere, at best. It is our adolescent corporate entity. It’s true.
