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LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Pemex reportedly looking to delay

payments to contractors until 2021

MEXICO’S national oil company (NOC) Pemex it’s like accounting limbo land,” Mathews said.
is reportedly seeking to defer payments to some “But the reality is that Pemex owes them this
of its contractors. money. What it means is that Pemex has a mas-
Sources familiar with the matter told sive additional debt burden.”
Bloomberg earlier this week that Pemex had He went on to say that disputes over payment
asked the contractors to wait until next year for had the potential to poison the relationship
payments that have already come due. They did between the NOC and its contractors. “I don’t
not identify the companies involved, but they know which company will go to court, where the
did note that the NOC owed a total of $115mn judge says Pemex has to pay what it owes, but
to just three entities. something bad is going to happen,” he said. “At
That sum might rise into the multi-bil- $40 a barrel, things have to be run perfectly, and
lion-dollar range if it included payments due Pemex is not run perfectly.”
to all of the contractors supporting Pemex, the This is not the first time the state-con-
news agency commented. trolled company has attempted to control costs
It also quoted the sources, who spoke on con- with respect to service contracts. Last month,
dition of anonymity, as saying that the NOC had sources with direct knowledge of the matter
already made changes to its invoicing system in told Bloomberg that Pemex had invalidated
order to facilitate the deferral of payments. Spe- contracts with eight domestic and foreign firms
cifically, they said, Pemex has asked certain con- since mid-May. Many of the cancelled contracts
tractors to submit their invoices on its website involved maintenance work at two offshore
and had then sent those contractors a confirma- fields in the shallow-water section of the Gulf of
tion number and an estimate of when payment Mexico, they said. ™
would arrive.
In some cases, they added, Pemex is not
assigning numbers to invoices, as it usually does.
As of press time, the NOC had not com-
mented on the matter. However, Wilbur
Matthews, the founder of Vaquero Global
Investment, a company that trades in Pemex
bonds, described the sources’ claims as worri-
some. The state-owned firm already carries a
heavy debt burden, and these new accounting
procedures will exacerbate the problem, he told
Bloomberg earlier this week.
“If Pemex refuses to give you an invoice num-
ber, it doesn’t become a payable to Pemex and it
doesn’t become a receivable to the company, so Deferring payments will increase Pemex’s debt burden (Photo: Pemex)

Private fuel importers said to be

facing more delays in Mexico

BUREAUCRATIC obstacles are reportedly reasons stated by customs officials for holding
causing more delays for companies other than up imports have been less substantiated than
state-run Pemex that seek to import refined usual. The problem has affected diesel cargoes
petroleum products into Mexico. in particular, they said.
Shipping sources told Argus Media last week “We have not imported less. But we have
that Mexican customs officials were taking steps definitely seen more administrative juggles,” one
that have slowed fuel deliveries – and that the source was quoted as saying.

Week 27 09•July•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11