Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 04 2021

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Pemex reports oil output down in 2020

MEXICO’S National Hydrocarbons Commis- development projects.
sion (CNH) said earlier this week that Pemex, The company is also struggling under a huge
the national oil company (NOC), had seen financial burden. Its revenues suffered last year
crude production decline by nearly 2% year on as a result of low oil prices and weak demand
year in 2020. stemming from the coronavirus (COVID-19)
According to data published by CNH on Jan- pandemic. But it is also in the unique position
uary 25, Pemex extracted some 1.61mn barrels of being the most indebted major oil company
per day of crude last year. This is 1.8% below the in the world, with a debt portfolio that tops
2019 full-year figure of 1.64mn bpd and is also $110bn. ™
103,000 bpd or 6% below the target figure of
1.713mn bpd, Bloomberg noted.
CNH data also put Mexico’s total oil produc-
tion at 1.66mn bpd in 2020. Private companies
extracted about 54,000 bpd of crude, or about
3.35% of the total.
The publication of the dataset confirms that
Pemex’s oil production has now been in decline
for 16 straight years. The government-controlled
company has declared its intent to push yields
up to 1.94mn bpd in 2021, but it has not said
how it expects to achieve this target. Pemex’s
reserves have also been trending downward in
the long term, and President Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador has all but abandoned plans
to seek foreign investment for exploration and The company’s production has declined for 16 years in a row (Photo: Pemex)

PANAMA
Panama Canal congestion

contributes to LNG price spike

CONGESTION in the Panama Canal delaying transit the canal in December, but that the wait
shipments of LNG from the US Gulf Coast to had now halved to one week.
Asia is among the factors pushing spot prices The authority told Reuters that it had
for the super-chilled fuel up to record highs in changed its transit reservation system on Jan-
Northeast Asia. uary 4 to ease the bottleneck and allow LNG
Other significant contributors included vessels to reserve two slots 10-15 days ahead of
colder-than-expected winter weather, a short- transit, rather than just one.
age of LNG carriers and supply outages at some
liquefaction plants around the world. The Pan-
ama Canal congestion could last until March,
according to traders cited last week by Reuters,
and the weather is anticipated to start improving
around then too. This has already led to LNG
spot prices for March delivery trading at less
than half the average price of cargoes due to be
delivered in February.
The congestion comes despite the canal’s
regulator, the Panama Canal Authority, saying
it had made changes designed to speed up tran-
sit through the waterway. Reuters reported that
LNG carriers had to wait for up to two weeks to Congestion in the Panama Canal (Photo: File)

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 04 28•January•2021