Pemex to invest US1bn to revive petrochemical production

Mexico's state oil company Pemex will invest 20bn pesos (US$980mn) from 2025 to 2030 to revive its petrochemical production, in a bid to reverse years of declining output.

Pemex's output of petrochemicals fell from 11.3Mt in 2014 to 3.7Mt in 2024, according to company data.

Much of Mexico's petrochemical demand is now met by imports from the US and Asia.

Reviving Mexico's state petrochemical industry forms part of President Claudia Sheinbaum's Plan México industrial strategy, which aims to substitute imports with local production.

"One of our aims is to recover petrochemicals at Pemex," Sheinbaum said at a public meeting on Sunday.

By 2030, Mexico wants to substitute US$14bn of chemical and petrochemical imports.

Morelos and Cangrejera

At the presentation of Pemex's 2025-30 strategy on February 12, CEO Víctor Rodríguez Padilla outlined the company's plans for the Morelos and Cangrejera petrochemical plants in Veracruz state.

"We will reactivate the Morelos and Cangrejera complexes for ethane derivatives," Rodríguez said.

According to company data, petrochemical output at Morelos fell from 1.4Mt in 2014 to 136,000t in 2024. Output at Cangrejera dropped from 2.2Mt to 1Mt in the same period.

As part of its petrochemical strategy, Pemex aims to produce 330,000t/y of aromatics and 30,000b/d of gasoline additives, such as MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether).

"We will reach the goal of 250,000t of ethylene oxide and 690,000t of polyethylene per year," Rodríguez said.

Ethylene oxide is used in the production of polyester, among other applications. Polyethylene is one of the most widely used plastic resins in the world.

Pemex's production of ethylene oxide dropped from 351,000t in 2014 to 70,000t in 2024. Its output of various grades of polyethylene slumped from 587,000t to 15,200t.

Pemex will also modernize the Escolín petrochemical plant in Veracruz. The facility will produce 750t/y of urea fertilizer.

In 2024, Pemex hired Portuguese group Mota-Engil to carry out the project.

"We are going to give a lot of strength to fertilizers and petrochemicals," Sheinbaum said.