Mexico City /
The Undersecretary of Energy in the government of former President Ernesto Zedillo, Francisco Barnés de Castro, assured that Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) fails to comply the rules officials regarding to fuel qualityspecifically with diesel, which impacts the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
Francisco Barnés explained that Pemex is failing to comply with Official Mexican Standard (NOM) 016, while all other participants are obliged to comply with it, so there is no equal treatment and it represents an impact on the treaties.
“The gasoline that Mexico produces is of comparable quality to that imported, there is no major problem. However, in diesel we have been kicking the can down the road for 20 years, authorizing Pemex to fail to comply with the NOM on fuel quality,” he indicated. .
Impact of the legal change of Pemex to a public company
Francisco Barnés explained that Mexico does not have the necessary plants to produce the ultra low sulfur diesel (DUBA) that is required and this administration authorized Pemex to continue failing to comply with the norm.
Regarding fuel oil, the former rector of UNAM added that it used to have a value similar to that of gasoline and diesel, but today it does not.
“The economic destruction of the value we have in Pemex’s transformation operations, in terms of energy consumption, and in terms of the returns we have, is something that the administration should consider to move Pemex forward,” he said.
In addition, he added that the quality tests regarding the sulfur in diesel are secondary, compared to the amount of sulfur that is being thrown into the atmosphere by the plants that are out of operation.
Regarding the change in legal status of Pemex to public company And as it could help the parastatal, he commented that this modification will not be enough to face the financial problems, the million-dollar debt and the upcoming debt maturities.
Francisco Barnés highlighted that, on the contrary, this change, which has already been approved by the Legislative Branch, allows him to have greater support from the federal government and greater confidence among investors.
“It is possible that its credit rating will improve significantly, however, this will still be insufficient to be able to get the company out of the crisis it is still in,” he asserted.
K.L.
