Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 50 2022

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Pemex seeking renewed state

coverage for debt amortisations

MEXICO’S national oil company (NOC) Pemex crude exports – to cover amortisation payments.
is seeking renewed state support for payment of Pemex’s total debt load stood at around
its debt amortisations, the head of the firm said $109.1bn as of the end of 2021. This made it the
on December 14. most indebted oil company in the world.
According to Pemex’s CEO Octavio Romero Fitch Ratings commented in a note in Sep-
Oropeza, the state-owned company has already tember that the Mexican government had not
started discussions with the government on the taken full advantage of the bullish trends driv-
potential renewal of a financial support plan that ing global oil markets this year to bring Pemex’s
was put in place last year. The NOC is interested debt burden down. “Elevated oil prices in 2022
in securing support for the payments it is due to were a lost opportunity to materially improve”
make in early 2023, he said. the company’s standalone credit profile (SCP),
“We’re in talks with the Finance Ministry,” Fitch analysts Saverio Minervini and Carlos
Reuters quoted him as saying. Morales wrote. ™
No information was available as of press time
on the exact extent of the financial support that
Pemex was requesting from the government.
Mexico City had pledged in 2021 to cover
Pemex’s payments on debt amortisations – that
is, to make payments on the state-controlled
company’s maturing securities – until the end
of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s
term in 2024. To this end, the government allo-
cated budget funds to the NOC for 2022 and
disbursed its first tranche in January.
However, Pemex stopped receiving funding
under this special programme after the first
quarter of 2022. This appears to have been a
result of the rise in global crude oil prices follow-
ing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led
many officials in Mexico City to conclude that
the NOC was capable of using its own funds –
and in particular, the extra money earned from Pemex’s CEO says his company is in talks with the Finance Ministry (Photo: Pemex)

GUYANA
Guyana begins accepting bids

in first deepwater licensing round

GUYANA’S President Irfaan Ali formally the winners of the bidding contests in May 2023,
marked the opening of the country’s first deep- he stated.
water offshore bidding round on December 9. Guyanese authorities hope the bidding
Georgetown is now accepting bids from local round will attract a wide range of potential
firms, national oil companies (NOCs) and inter- investors, the president added.
national oil companies (IOCs) on 14 offshore “We are hoping that there will be maximum
blocks that may hold as much as 25bn barrels of participation and that Guyana would be part of
oil equivalent (boe), Ali declared. a partnership that creates greater benefit and
The government will continue to accept greater wins for our country and our people,”
offers until April 14, 2023, and aims to announce he said.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 14•December•2022