/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-infobae.s3.amazonaws.com/public/ZZ4DVVDM6FDQ5NTTEIUCU5MMKM.JPG "Mexico to close crude production in new fields after oil price crash")
Mexican state oil company Pemex is getting ready to close production on new fieldsPresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday, amid the collapse of international oil prices.
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The president, who has made reviving the state giant a priority, added that it was more difficult to shut down production from mature fields, so it will go to local refineries, which he says They are processing about 800,000 barrels per day, half of their capacity.
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“Because it closes and it takes time, due to lack of pressure from the wells, to reactivate them and remove oil. So now it is closing and our basic production for the refineries until the price of crude oil improves.“López Obrador said in his daily press conference.
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However, he did not say how much that reduction would be. A small portion of about twenty new fields that have started production It reached just over 4,000 bpd in 2019.
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US oil futures collapsed below $ 0 on Monday for the first time in history, due to the oversupply caused by the coronavirus and ended the day at -37.63 dollars per barrel, because desperate operators paid to get rid of the barrels.
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The Mexican export oil mix closed on Monday at -2.37 dollars per barrel.
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Pemex production is around 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), but the government agreed to reduce it by 100,000 bpd for two months from May after the agreements reached this month among the main oil producers in the world.
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The president said on Tuesday that the collapse in prices will exacerbate the global economic crisis and will certainly affect Mexico, whose economy was already facing a weak performance after falling 0.1% last year and face a dark outlook for 2020 due to the coronavirus and the drop in oil prices.
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Pemex, which has more than USD 105,000 million in financial debt, has been hard hit by the global collapse of the price of crude oil and lost USD 18,000 million in 2019.
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The company’s debt has been downgraded to the “junk” level by two rating agencies in recent weeks and Analysts expect the López Obrador government to have to offer more financial support to keep the company afloat.
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