The Mexican oil group is suffering from a drop in revenues from crude oil sales and a significant tax burden.
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The Mexican oil company Pemex, the country’s largest public company, announced Thursday a loss of $ 18.3 billion in 2019, an increase of 92% over the previous year.
For the company, already burdened with more than $ 100 billion in debt, the deterioration of its finances is due to a drop in revenues from crude oil sales and a significant tax burden.
According to the results published Thursday by the company, last year, total sales of Pemex decreased by 16% compared to 2018, while for the fourth quarter, the decrease was 22% compared to the same period in 2018.
“The most important variables explaining this situation are the fall in the price of the Mexican (raw) export blend, the fall in reference prices for gasoline and diesel, and the decrease in the volume of domestic and domestic sales. ‘export’, the company said in a statement.
Pemex said that its debt has decreased by 4.8% compared to the end of 2018, “mainly due to the early repayment of the debt that was made as part of the liability management transaction in September 2019” .
As of December 31, the oil company’s debt was $ 105.2 billion, the company said.
In particular, Pemex requires more investment to reverse the continued decline in production, from an average of 3.4 million barrels / day (b / d) in 2004 to 1.6 million b / d today.
The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has already injected some $ 10 billion to try to alleviate Pemex’s finances, which it considers crucial to national sovereignty.
In mid-2019, the rating agency Fitch downgraded the company’s shares to a speculative category.
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