AMLO lays out plans for new refinery in Mexico

Construction on what will be Mexico’s largest refinery could start as early as 2019, international media reported on Tuesday.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) told reporters the incoming administration would begin the planning stages for the refinery project within days of taking office on December 1.

The cost of the refinery, rumoured to be slated for construction in Tabasco state, is estimated at USD 6 billion-8 billion. Though no estimates of crude processing and output capacities have been disclosed, Rocio Nahle, Mexico’s next energy minister, said in February that the then-candidate was looking to boost the country’s crude processing capacity by 300,000-600,000 bpd.

“The commitment is to produce gasoline [petrol] in Mexico,” AMLO said, cited by Reuters. “We want to produce gasoline because we have the raw material, we have crude oil.”

The president-elect has pledged to end Mexican fuel imports halfway through his six-year term. In 2017, the country’s refining throughput averaged at just 49.6% of its 1.55-million-bpd capacity, and foreign petrol imports rose to 808,000 bpd, or about two-thirds of total domestic demand.