Pemex's production falls to historical lows during the last year

A cyclist passes a Pemex station in Jalisco.Cesar Rodriguez / Bloomberg

Pemex's production of barrels of hydrocarbons has reached the lowest figures in the last 40 years.

During 2020, the company's daily extraction without the help of its partners was 1.6 million barrels per day, a low never seen since 1980, when there was a global decline in crude oil due to surpluses and production was at 1.7 million barrels per day.

In just one year, oil extraction has contracted by 2.2%, a consequence of the complex fall of the world oil industry due to geopolitical disputes and the advance of covid-19.

Petróleos Mexicanos, which accumulates a debt of more than 110,000 million dollars, has published in its last annual report that the trend of decrease in the production of hydrocarbons in the last five years continues to decline.

In 2015, the extraction stood at 2.5 million barrels per day, one year later it was 2.4 million, the next 2.2 million and so on until reaching the 1.9 million barrels produced on average in 2020 in collaboration with its oil partners.

Production has fallen 26% in the last five years and Pemex has become the world's most indebted oil company.

The decrease in the number of barrels is linked to the coronavirus health crisis.

Last April, Mexico agreed to cut a quarter of its daily production, about 100,000 barrels a day, to compensate for the sinking demand due to the pandemic.

The collapse caused, among other causes, by flight cancellations and the decrease in road traffic in the midst of the pandemic, pushed the main oil-producing countries to establish a historic cut in production last April.

In those negotiations, Mexico opposed Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, and refused to contract its total production by 23%.

Instead, it managed to minimize its share of cuts thanks to an agreement with the United States.

The downward trend in its production has resulted in a loss of almost 40,000 million pesos, a 42.5% drop in its domestic sales compared to July 2019.

Mexico's Finance Secretary, Arturo Herrera, acknowledged in an interview with EL PAÍS that the economic situation of the national oil company is one of his biggest concerns.

“When you look at the numbers coldly, your gross pre-tax result is better than many of your competitors.

The problem begins when we begin to collect the taxes that we charge you and at the same time you have to pay your debt.

What we have been doing in recent years is reducing Pemex's tax structure, so that they can be adjusted little by little and give us space to breathe, ”Herrera said at the time.