Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 33

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Mexican president urges cancellation of

Pemex-Braskem ethane supply contract

THE head of Mexico’s government has called Revolutionary Party (PRI), in exchange for
for the cancellation of an ethane supply contract guaranteed approval of future contracts. Some
between Mexico’s national oil company (NOC) of the bribe money was used to cover the costs of
Pemex and Braskem Idesa SAPI, a consortium the 2012 campaign, according to Gertz Manero.
formed by Grupo Idesa, a Mexican holding that Lozoya was recently extradited from Spain
manufactures chemicals, and Braskem, a Bra- to face charges of taking $10mn in bribes from
zilian firm controlled by the Odebrecht group. Odebrecht. He has denied any wrongdoing
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the presi- and has said he will co-operate with Mexican
dent of Mexico, spoke critically about the con- investigators.
tract at his daily press conference on August 17. For its part, Pemex has not commented pub-
“That contract has to be cancelled in my opin- licly on the matter. But Braskem has tried to
ion because it’s unfair,” he asserted. “It has to be refute allegations of bribery and wrongdoing.
reviewed.” The Brazilian company said earlier this
The president did not elaborate or say week that it had not uncovered any evidence
whether his administration would take any of corruption while conducting its own inter-
specific action against the consortium. Accord- nal probe. “We trust that any dialogue with the
ing to previous reports, he first raised the idea authorities will take place within the frame-
of cancelling the deal in February. At that time, work of the rule of law and legality, an essential
he complained that Pemex was being forced to condition for investor confidence,” it stated in
supply Braskem Idesa SAPI with ethane at arti- response to questions from Reuters.
ficially low prices. Additionally, Braskem dismissed Lopez
He also stated that Mexican authorities were Obrador’s past complaints about below-mar-
reviewing the NOC’s contract, which provides ket prices for ethane supplies. The terms of the
for deliveries of ethane to the consortium’s deal are in line with the prices that Pemex had
Nanchital petrochemical plant in Veracruz accepted over a period of 16 years, it said. ™
State. “We’re investigating if the contract can be
cancelled, if it can be done legally ... There is an
ongoing investigation,” he said.
Lopez Obrador’s opposition may stem from
his anti-corruption stance. As noted above, one
of Braskem Idesa SAPI’s shareholders is owned
by Odebrecht, which has been embroiled in the
“Lava Jato” (“Clean Hands”) scandal in Brazil.
According to Mexican Attorney General Ale-
jandro Gertz Manero, the Brazilian company
helped finance the 2012 campaign of Enrique
Peña Nieto, the country’s former president.
Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Pemex,
has said that Odebrecht bribed representa-
tives of Peña Nieto’s faction, the Institutional Pemex supplies ethane to the Nanchital plant (Photo: Braskem Idesa SAPI)

PANAMA
Panama’s marine fuel sales down in July

THE Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) has figure of 305,562 tonnes, but it is 30.4% below
reported a significant year-on-year decline in the figure of 484,144 tonnes recorded in the
the volume of marine fuel sales. same month of 2019.
Earlier this week, the government agency Sales were down at fuelling stations on both
said that Panamanian facilities had sold a total the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, though there
of 337,035 tonnes of all types of marine fuels were exceptions in some categories, AMP data
in July. This marked a rise of 10.3% on the June showed.

Week 33 19•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11