Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 29 2020

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Former Pemex boss extradited

from Spain on corruption charges

EMILIO Lozoya, the former head of Mexi- a lot to help purify public life, to clean up cor-
co’s state oil and gas major Pemex, has been ruption,” he was quoted as saying at a news
extradited from Spain to face allegations of conference.
corruption related to bribery at a Brazilian con- Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest engi-
struction firm. neering conglomerate, has admitted to having
Mexican authorities say Lozoya has been used bribery schemes in 12 countries. The firm’s
accused of taking $10mn in bribes from Bra- activities have been linked to the investigation
zil’s Odebrecht, according to a BBC report. The known as “Operation Car Wash,” which has
former energy boss has denied any wrongdoing gone down in history as Brazil’s worst-ever cor-
and has said he will co-operate with the police ruption scandal.
enquiry. He will now face charges in Mexico. The Brazilian government launched a probe
Lozoya served as CEO of Petrobras between into the scandal in 2014 and has yet to wrap
2012 and 2016. He fled to Spain after he was up the matter. So far, it has already revealed a
accused of receiving substantial bribes from ring of graft and bribery between a number of
Odebrecht, and Interpol put him on a list of state-owned companies and private contractors,
internationally wanted fugitives in May 2019. including Odebrecht, which was sentenced to
A few months later, German police detained pay $2.6bn worth of fines in 2017. ™
his mother after Mexican judicial authorities
accused her of helping to launder money from
Pemex.
Then in February of this year, Lozoya was
arrested by Spanish police in the southern
part of the country in February. On July 17, he
boarded a plane for his return to Mexico.
Under Mexican law, the former Pemex chief
will have to make an initial statement to a judge
after re-entering the country, a state official told
Reuters last week.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel Lopez
Obrador, who has often campaigned against
corruption, said the extradition represented a
significant step towards defeating bribery and
other unsavoury practices in the Latin Ameri-
can country.
“This voluntary extradition is going to do Lozoya was Pemex’s CEO in 2012-2016 (Photo: Expansion.mx)

Okra Energy subsidiary

to deliver LNG to Mexico

A subsidiary of US-based Okra Energy has from the 100,000 gallon per day (gpd) gas lique-
announced plans to deliver LNG to a customer faction plant that it is now building in McIntosh,
in Mexico. Alabama, about 45 miles (72 km) away from the
According to a company statement, Okra port of Mobile.
Energy Alabama (USA) has signed an LNG Presumably Énestas will take delivery of the
supply agreement with Énestas Energy & Gas, LNG at the terminal that it built on Mexico’s
a privately owned Mexican firm. The deal has a Gulf coast and launched last year. This terminal
term of five years and may be renewed, and Okra is the first dual LNG/ethane import facility in
Energy Alabama (USA) will source the LNG Mexico.

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