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It did so after Cardenas Dominguez approved
almost $1mn in payments to about 270 employ-
ees in May, when PMI employees were working
from home because of the global coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic.
At the same time, PMI also told Cardenas
Dominguez to quit. Additionally, it informed
company employees that they would need to
provide a written explanation in order to keep
the payments, despite the fact that profit-sharing
is a constitutional right in Mexico, Bloomberg’s
source said.
The Pemex subsidiary later retracted that
demand, saying that employees could keep the PMI is the company’s trading arm (Image: Pemex)
cash, Bloomberg said. Even so, it then encour-
aged them to donate the money voluntarily. which employees had made donations.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Pemex asks its directors, deputy directors
Obrador joined the debate earlier this month, and managers to return between 5% and 14%
saying that the return of year-end bonuses – of their monthly salaries to the state, Bloomb-
which is a different payment to profit-sharing erg noted. The state-controlled firm asks other
– wasn’t mandatory for Pemex workers. Sources workers to donate as much as 40% of their year-
told Bloomberg that some of the payments being end bonuses, known as aguinaldo, it added.
returned by employees were due to be given to PMI has been hit hard by the pandemic,
Pemex’s network of 24 hospitals and clinics, to which led to a fall in global energy demand and
help them cope with the pandemic. They said oil prices. Earlier this year, it slashed its opera-
PMI was making weekly checks to determine tional budget in a bid to regain lost ground. ™

Sempra to consolidate US,

Mexican LNG subsidiaries

CALIFORNIA-BASED Sempra Energy has
announced this week that it is simplifying its
energy infrastructure business – a plan that
entails combining its two LNG subsidiaries into
a single unit.
Under the plan, US subsidiary Sempra LNG
and Mexico’s Infraestructura Energética Nova
(IEnova) will be unified into Sempra Infrastruc-
ture Partners after the parent company acquires
the 29.8% of the IEnova shares it does not own.
The deal values IEnova at $6.13bn.
The creation of the new unit is intended to
simplify and add scale to Sempra’s North Amer-
ican infrastructure business, the company said
in a December 2 statement. Sempra Infrastruc- The ECA LNG project reached the FID stage last month (Image: Sempra Energy)
ture Partners will focus on the development of
North American LNG export infrastructure, as is being developed by a joint venture between
well as natural gas infrastructure and renewable Sempra LNG and IEnova. In the US, Sempra
energy generation. Its LNG portfolio will consist LNG operates the Cameron LNG terminal in
of roughly 45mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG Louisiana and is proposing to build Port Arthur
export capacity in development, construction or LNG facility in Texas.
operation on the North American Pacific and Subject to receiving all the necessary author-
Gulf Coasts, the parent company added. isations, Sempra anticipates completing its
This comes after Sempra made a final invest- acquisition of IEnova shares by the end of the
ment decision (FID) in mid-November on the first quarter of 2021. It also intends to sell a
Energía Costa Azul (ECA) LNG export project, non-controlling interest in Sempra Infrastruc-
which involves a liquefaction terminal in Mex- ture Partners to fund the entity’s growth, which
ico that will use US gas as feedstock. The project will be geared towards the energy transition.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 03•December•2020