The head of Energy, Rocío Nahle, assured this Thursday that the first refining train of the new Olmeca refinery in Paraíso, Tabasco, near the port of two mouthswill start in July of this year and that the work will have a total cost of 12,600 million dollars.
“The program is for the first refining train to start up in July, three months will pass to stabilize that train and the second train will enter in September to stabilize in the other three more months,” he said at the National Palace during the press conference of the Executive.
The work will finally have 18 processing plants, 90 storage tanks, workshops, warehouses, administrative buildings, laboratories, control room and external works, such as gas pipelines, aqueducts, delivery terminal, monobuoys, bypass, among other things, he explained. It is currently in the process of testing, starting up and integrating the lines.
Its official cost would thus be 57.5% higher than that promised by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador when the work began, although various analysts from around the world assure that the cost of the refinery cannot be less than 18,000 million dollars.
This work has had more than 240,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country. It will process 340,000 barrels per day and will obtain 170,000 gasoline barrels and 120,000 barrels of ultra low sulfur diesel per day.
Currently, 35,886 workers from all over the Republic are working on site. It has a national content of 72% in supplies and labor. ICA Flour, Samsung and Techint are the companies in charge of the construction packages.
Rehabilitation of the national refining system
Regarding the program to rehabilitate the six Petróleos Mexicanos refineries, he explained that in 2019 there were 84 direct interventions; in 2020, 51 major intervention and 115 minor. In 2021, there were 137 rehabilitation interventions in the 6 refineries, 32 within the higher range and 105 of the lower type. In 2022 there were 104 interventions, of which 14 major and 90 minor. This year 39 major repairs and 186 minor ones are contemplated, which is a total of 225 rehabilitation actions that enter as direct investment.
Rocío Nahle also explained that in the rehabilitation program six o’clock refineries that today operate in Mexico, an investment of 62,898 million pesos (around 1,200 million dollars) has been made.
“This is a historic figure to rehabilitate and return to optimal conditions the refineries of Mexico,” he said, “this year it is contemplated, 1,310 million pesos have already been exercised; and for the rest of the year there are 14,813 million pesos.”
With this, production has increased from the 35% it had in 2018 to the current 72% capacity use.
And it is that when this administration began, only 2 refineries were fully working: Cadereyta and Salamanca. Salina Cruz was out of operation due to a fire that occurred; Tula was out of operational condition because pumps, pipes and valves were mainly out of specification by safety location; Madero had not operated for almost a year and a half due to damage to some pipes, especially in a so-called transfer line; Minatitlán was out of the Maya combined plant, also due to a fire that occurred. Today the six refineries of the system operate.
