Pemex taps Mota-Engil for US$1.2bn fertilizer plant in Veracruz

Mexican national oil company Pemex has hired Portuguese group Mota-Engil to build a US$1.2bn fertilizer plant in Veracruz state, the latter said in a release.

Under the agreement, Mota-Engil will build and operate that plant that will produce a total of more than 700,000t/y of ammonia and urea along with AdBlue, a urea-based solution used to reduce harmful emissions from diesel engines.

Construction of the plant on the outskirts of the city of Poza Rica reflects Pemex's strategy of boosting Mexico's domestic fertilizer production and reducing imports.

Earlier this month, CEO Octavio Romero said a 990,000t/y urea plant at the Proagroindustria complex, also in Veracruz, was now operational.

Mota-Engil signed the agreement for the new plant with Pemex Transformación Industrial, the federal company's refining and petrochemicals arm.

Engineering feasibility studies are expected to take four to six months and construction 42 months, Mota-Engil said. It will then operate the plant for 20 years and will be remunerated by Pemex over the course of this period.

Pemex will provide Mota-Engil with the natural gas and water needed to produce the fertilizers and will sell the final products.

Mota-Engil Mexico will manage the project alongside Duro Felguera, a Spanish construction company in which Mota-Engil acquired a stake in 2023.

Mota-Engil has designated Mexico a core market and the country accounted for 20% of its backlog of construction projects in 1Q24. 

The company's other projects in Mexico include lines 4, 5, and 6 of the Monterrey metro, the Tultepec-Pirámides highway, the extension of the Gran Canal road in Mexico City, and stretches of the Maya train.

China Communications Construction (CCCC), the world’s fourth largest construction company, has a 32.4% stake in Mota-Engil.