Page 7 - LatAmOil Week 25 2021

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

“I’m not overflowing with optimism,” he told the similar measures in the oil sector, as the pres-
news agency. “I am cautious.” ident has said repeatedly that he wants state-
Monreal did not comment on any of the owned companies to dominate the energy
specific provisions of Lopez Obrador’s plans business.
for state-owned Comision Federal de Electri- The ruling coalition is led by Morena, the
cidad (CFE). The amendment is likely to have president’s own party. Since Morena no longer
an impact on Mexico’s hydrocarbon industry, as has a super-majority in the National Congress,
CFE also builds and operates the pipelines that Lopez Obrador may struggle to secure the two-
pump natural gas to its thermal power plants thirds share of votes needed to pass constitu-
(TPPs). It could also encourage the adoption of tional amendments. ™

VENEZUEL A
El Aissami claims PdVSA has boosted oil

production and refinery throughput

VENEZUELA has more than doubled its oil underinvestment and the US sanctions regime.
production over the last 10 months and is poised According to Monaldi, PdVSA could con-
to realise further gains before the end of the year, ceivably push yields up to 600,000 bpd, provided
according to Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami. that all goes well and the US government does
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, El not impose any further restrictions on trade.
Aissami reported that Venezuela’s national oil Nevertheless, he told Bloomberg, reaching this
company (NOC) PdVSA was now extracting target would cause great strain. “Even getting to
more than 700,000 barrels per day of oil, up that would be implausible in the medium term,”
from the historic low of 310,000 bpd recorded he remarked. “Production capacity has been
in August 2020. Output levels are set to climb to falling since 2014, and there have been no oil
1.5mn bpd by the end of 2021, he added. rigs operating in Venezuela for a year.”
As of press time, LatAmOil had not been able El Aissami also claimed that Venezuela’s
to verify the accuracy of these statements. refining industry, which has also seen perfor-
Independent observers have cast doubt on mance decline after years of missed repairs and
his estimates of production growth. For exam- other hardships, was firmly on the road to recov-
ple, Francisco Monaldi, the director of the Latin ery. The country’s four oil-processing plants
American Energy Program at Rice University’s have gone from being almost completely idle as
Center for Energy Studies, told Bloomberg that of the end of 2019 to handling nearly 500,000
El Aissami’s numbers and forecasts were not bpd. By the end of June, he declared, the refiner-
only unreliable but “impossible”, as Venezue- ies will be turning out enough fuel to cover 100%
la’s oil industry has been hobbled by neglect, of domestic demand.

Venezuela claims that oil production has more than doubled since last August (Photo: PdVSA)

Week 25 24•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7