Photo: ANP
Mexico will stop exporting crude oil to meet domestic demand. State oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) announced that exports will be limited to 435,000 barrels per day next year. In 2023, all the oil pumped into Mexico will remain domestic.
With this move, Pemex is helping achieve the goal of self-sufficiency for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s nationalist government. Now Mexico still exports a lot of crude oil, but it imports the most refined fuels, mostly from the United States. Lopez Obrador wants to change that because that way a lot of money disappears from the country. In order to be able to produce enough fuel on its own, Pemex has been working for some time to increase refining capacity.
The move is a major turning point for Mexico, which still exported 1.9 million barrels per day in 2004 and attended OPEC oil meetings as a member of the audience. Last month, this Latin American country’s crude oil exports were still more than 1 million barrels per day. This oil went mainly to Asian countries such as South Korea and India.
