Pemex: New Olmeca Refinery will Process 243,000 BBL/d in 2024

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Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petroleos Mexicanos' (Pemex) (Mexico City) new Dos Bocas Olmeca petroleum refinery will operate this year at 243,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of its total 340,000-BBL/d capacity, the president of Mexico's state-owned petroleum company has announced. Octavio Oropeza made the announcement during a press conference on Thursday with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Oropeza said the refinery will begin production between the end of January and February. Pemex has failed to meet previously announced startup dates.

In December, IIR Energy said that commercial operations at the Olmeca refinery are expected no earlier than May 2024.

Olmeca has been one of Lopez Obrador's flagship projects, although its startup has been delayed on several occasions. The government had expected to start the refinery in the last semester of 2023.

The refinery is key for Lopez Obrador's fuel self-sufficiency government campaign. Since coming to power, the administration has criticized the fuel import levels maintained by previous governments. Lopez Obrador promised to reverse that trend by building a new refinery and improving domestic refining levels.

Without Olmeca, Pemex has a domestic refining capacity of 1.64 million BBL/d across six refineries, although in recent years, crude processing rates have been below 50% of capacity. In 2022, Pemex purchased the 340,000-BBL/d Deer Park refinery to boost fuel output.

Throughout 2023, Pemex's Mexican domestic refineries processed 794,000 BBL/d or 48% of the total capacity. However, the company is conducting some refurbishment works across these assets and is installing two new coking units, which will help it reach runs of 1.2 million BBL/d by next year, according to Oropeza.

Pemex expects to start up the Tula and Salina Cruz coking units in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

Based on Oropeza's presentation, Mexico will need to import only 66,000 BBL/d of fuel to meet its domestic demand beginning in September with the start of Olmeca and shipments from Deer Park. For next year, Pemex projects that Mexico would need to import only 3,000 BBL/d (excluding fuel from Deer Park) to meet domestic demand, as Olmeca reaches higher production and enhancements to the other six refineries take place.

However, just like with Olmeca, the government has failed several times in the past to reach its refining goals on time.

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