In February 2010, Pemex signed a contract with the Braskem (Odebrecht) and Idesa consortium to supply “cheap” ethane, which caused losses of 1,935 million pesos in 2016, exposes the complaint before the then PGR against the former Presidents Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and Enrique Peña Nieto, in addition to the former head of the oil company, Emilio Lozoya Austin, and also the former Secretary of the Treasury and then former PRI presidential candidate, José Antonio Meade Kuribreña.
The “embezzlement” continued in 2017 for a thousand 707 million pesos, the Superior Audit of the Federation documented. That is, the damage has been at least 3 thousand 642 million pesos.
Mexico City, February 27 (SinEmbargo) .– In June 2018, in the days before the presidential election of July 1 of that year, the former presidents Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (2006-2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), as well as the former head of Mexican oil (Pemex), Emilio Lozoya Austin, and the former Secretary of the Treasury and also former presidential candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, were denounced before the then Attorney General’s Office (PGR) for the possible embezzlement of the Mexican oil company for 935 million pesos in 2016
This complaint derived from the “disadvantageous” contract that Pemex made with Braskem (from Odebrecht) and Idesa (from the family of Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández – then undersecretary of Government of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob)) and which allows the consortium to buy the “cheap” ethane oil company for the next 20 years.
“A very thorough investigation has to be done to delineate responsibilities, see who the direct beneficiaries have been, but also the indirect ones due to the set of decisions and the implications of the political group of the Enrique Peña Nieto period, and which was built since the period of Felipe Calderón. Of course, what has to be reviewed is from its own genesis if this supply contract that was disadvantageous for Pemex is not void since its origin because of the illegality with which it was signed, ”said the organization member Now, Alfredo Figueroa Fernández , one of the citizens who filed the complaint two years ago.
However, after filing the complaint, the Superior Audit of the Federation evidenced in the Public Account 2017 (published in February 2019) more losses for Pemex for thousand 707 million pesos in 2017, because the cost of production and transport of ethane was higher than the income from its sale to the “Ethylene XXI” complex in Braskem-Idesa.
So the damage to Pemex in 2016 and 2017 amounts to 3 thousand 642 million pesos.
“We are in the process of monitoring [a la denuncia]. We will soon introduce new elements related to this same case. We are working on it. I hope that in the next two weeks we can give information about it, ”Figueroa said in a telephone interview with Nevertheless.
The contract is “a state conspiracy to benefit an individual (Braskem-Idesa) and its partners in the government,” says the complaint. Image: Now.
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Yesterday, in his morning conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that “to install the plant they were given credit from Nacional Financiera and Bancomext” for what is being investigated and “is being reviewed to see if the contract can be canceled “
In this regard, Figueroa explained that since the complainants are not considered victims, they cannot have access to the investigation files to know their progress, but agreed with the need to review the contract “because it is still costing Mexicans to continue financing a company to which we provide ethane at a lower price than the market and we have avoided the political competition for ethylene and its commercialization ”.
THE LOSS OF 2 BILLION IN 2016
Due to the lag at the beginning of the operation of the “Ethylene XXI” Complex, from January 2015 to February 2016, Pemex paid for the services not provided with ethane transport 668 million 986 thousand 400 pesos (431 million pesos in 2015 and 237 million in 2016), because although the pipeline was ready, Braskem-Idesa did not start operations until March 2016, nine months after the start of a contractually agreed operation, the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) stated in the 2016 Public Account .
In addition, Pemex reported losses of 1,935 million pesos due to the sale of ethane, since the cost of production of sales during 10 months of 2016 was 1,736 million pesos, which added to the 1,387 million pesos of the service of Transportation paid for 12 months, results in a cost of sales of 3 thousand 123 million pesos, an amount greater than that entered for sales per thousand 188 million pesos.
During the six-year period of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, who has just achieved the requirements to form the Mexico Libre party, the foundations were laid for the “Ethylene XXI” Complex located in Cotzacoalcos, Veracruz, to supply ethane, through the City’s gas processing centers Pemex, Nuevo Pemex, Cactus and the Cangrejera Petrochemical Complex.
The Superior Audit states that on February 19, 2010, through an “auction process” between 12 private investors, Pemex Gas and Basic Petrochemicals (PGPB), currently Pemex Industrial Transformation (PTRI), awarded an “Ethane Supply Contract” for a period of 20 years with a minimum volume of 66.0 thousand barrels per day (Mbd) to a group of two investors: the consortium formed by the Brazilian Braskem (with Odebrecht shareholding) together with the Mexican Idesa.
Braskem-Idesa invested 5,200 million dollars to design, finance, build, own and operate an ethylene plant and two or three polyethylene plants with the services and access infrastructure.
The then President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and the now former oil union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps. Photo: Cuartoscuro.
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The start of operation was agreed no later than June 30, 2015, as well as a year of testing prior to its operation (June 30, 2014). But, ASF observed, it did not generate economic value or profitability for Pemex in 2016 as it began operating until March.
Already in the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto and the management of Emilio Lozoya Austin (prisoner in Spain), to supply the ethane to the “Ethylene XXI” complex of Braskem-Idesa, Pemex formalized a contract for the direct award of December 13, 2012 “Ethane Transportation Services” by pipeline, which considered the construction of a 226 kilometer pipeline, for the connection between the gas processing centers of Ciudad Pemex, Nuevo Pemex, Cactus and the “Ethylene Complex XXI”, as well as the Cangrejera Petrochemical Complex to the “Ethylene Complex XXI”.
On November 18, 2015, the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) granted “Gasoductos del Sureste” the petrochemical transport permit title.
In July 2015, the Board of Directors of Pemex authorized that the amount of the contract for the 20 years 6 months of its validity for transportation would go from 982 million dollars to 1,346 million dollars, with an annual fee of 65 million 746 thousand dollars for changes in diameters in pipelines, valves, heater installation and social problems that caused changes in the route.
OTHER LOSSES FOR PEMEX IN 2017
Due to the low production of wet gas from the Cactus and Nuevo Pemex gas processing complexes, which produce ethane to supply the “Ethylene XXI” complex, a multidisciplinary group from Pemex evaluated various supply alternatives for this petrochemical, such as importation. But when not materializing, in the absence of raw material Pemex Industrial Transformation maintained a downward trend in ethane production, which generated penalties for non-compliance with Braskem-Idesa.
In 2017, when the owner of Pemex was José Antonio González Anaya, the sale price of ethane remained below production and transportation costs, which did not make it profitable. In the ethane supply contract signed in 2010, a protection clause or revision of the discount percentages was not considered, so that situations of possible non-compliance with low production were not anticipated.
According to the complaint presented by Alfredo Figueroa and Paulo Díez, the former Secretary of the Treasury José Antonio Meade (2011-2012) signed a decree that illegally increased the import tax of the petrochemical to allow Braskem-Idesa “Sell expensive polyethylene to Mexico.”
“In 2017, Pemex Industrial Transformation registered a production cost of 3 474 million pesos, and a transport cost of 1,222 million pesos; consequently, it cost 4 thousand 697 million pesos to produce and sell ethane to the ‘Ethylene XXI’ complex. And it obtained 2,989 million pesos from the sale of the petrochemical, which means a loss for Pemex of thousand 707 million 345 thousand 500 pesos“, Observed the Superior Audit of the Federation in the Public Account 2017.
Damage to Pemex was also determined because the “Ethylene XXI” complex –of the Odebrecht subsidiary– did not accept the ethane sent equivalent to 2 million 961 thousand pesos, so it failed to comply with the supply and a penalty of 810 was applied million 155 thousand pesos.
This loss was added to another for 241 million 846 thousand pesos in the sale of ethane to Pemex Ethylene, since Pemex Industrial Transformation entered 1,930 million pesos, but the cost to produce and sell the ethane was 2 thousand 145 million pesos .
“Pemex was sacked in an important way and there are many things we still don’t know. Pemex has international scopes that are absolutely opaque. It is very important that the current Government go in a dimension of transparency to explain this set of issues, ”said Now’s member Alfredo Figueroa.
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