The production of petroleum products of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) during the first quarter of the year was the highest in a similar period so far this administration: 861,694 barrels per day of products, with a monthly increase of 1.3%. However, the largest volume of fuel oil production in the six-year term is also observed, since 299,763 barrels per day were reported, with an annual increase of 16.2% per year, in addition to a more than 7% higher production of this product than gasoline. .
According to the company’s Statistics, the production of petroleum products, which includes gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, asphalt, and fuel oil, mainly, reached its best level for the first quarter of the year since 2017. This, thanks to the search for increase this national production as an energy policy of the current government and from 2019 to 2023 there is a 50% increase in the volume of production of these products, although it should be remembered that compared to the production of oil products a decade ago, the refineries of the company produce 32% less fuel.
Meanwhile, the production of gasoline was 277,714 barrels per day, with which in annual terms it fell by 2.3 percent. So far in the six-year term, the production of all gasolines is 44.9% higher than that of the first quarter of 2019, but there has not been such a broad recovery, since it remains 34.5% below the production that was in 2013.
By type of gasoline, Magna reported a production of 270,567 barrels per day, which was 1.4% lower than last year. So far in the six-year term, the production of this low-octane gasoline has increased by 43%, although in contrast to the production of a decade ago, the drop is 33.7 percent.
It stands out that the production of higher octane or Premium gasoline, which is less than 3% of Pemex’s gasoline production, had a report of 6,287 barrels per day, which was reduced by 23.6% in one year due to equipment repair for its preparation, according to the Ministry of Energy. In any case, so far this six-year term Premium production in the country has increased by 118%, which compared to what was produced a decade ago is 63.5% lower.
And it is that the crude process of the six refineries of the state oil company reached a level of 834,667 barrels per day in this first quarter of the year, which implied a use of 50.9% of the installed capacity. With this, it increased by 1.5% compared to the volume processed in the same quarter of the previous year, in which the use of capacity was 50.1 percent. This process volume is 49.5% of what it was in 2019, when the six-year term began, but it is still 32.5% lower than what was reported 10 years ago.
Shares in the total
Thus, in proportion, the production of gasoline was 32% of the total production of petroleum products in this period, while that of fuel oil represented 35%, since more than 20,000 barrels per day more of fuel oil were produced than of gasoline from January to March, with which for the third time in a quarter there is more gasoline than fuel oil in Pemex refineries.
The greater processing of crude oil and the elaboration of light fuels has forced the production of other residuals, such as fuel oil, whose production was 299,586 barrels per day in the first quarter of the year. Fuel oil production is also 112% higher than that reported in 2019 and 6% higher than it was a decade ago.
The controversy that revolves around this heavy fuel is that its levels of polluting emissions have prohibited its use in different parts of the world and industries, such as naval. Hence, analysts accuse that its increased production will force the government to use it more for the thermoelectric generation of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
However, Pemex indicators show that exports of fuel oil to refineries in the United States have increased considerably and stood at 224,186 barrels per day in the first quarter, with an annual increase of 22 percent.
