Mexico closes ports; Pemex plans 2005

The Associated Press

Mexico’s three Gulf coast crude-oil loading ports were closed Nov. 4 because of poor weather conditions, the Communications and Transportation Department said.

Pajaritos in Veracruz state and Dos Bocas in Tabasco closed Nov. 3, and the offshore terminal at Cayo Arcas closed Nov. 4, the ministry reported.

State oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, ships most of its 1.9 million barrels a day of crude oil exports from those three ports. Also Nov. 4, Pemex’s chief financial officer, Juan Jose Suarez, said the company planned to invest US$11.2 billion in 2005, 85 percent of which will be put into production and exploration.

One-tenth of next year’s investment will be for refining, and smaller amounts will be for gas and petrochemicals, Suarez said.

The investment proposal must still be approved by Congress.

Suarez said Pemex will require financing of US$8.5 billion next year, of which US$6 billion is to refinance maturing debt. Pemex had net debt of US$31.6 billion at the end of September, about US$3 billion more than it had a year earlier.

In the first nine months of this year, Pemex’s sales rose 15 percent to US$48.7 billion, as the company exported 1.84 million barrels a day of its 3.4 million daily barrels of crude oil production. Higher oil prices contributed to an 18 percent increase in gains before taxes and duties, but Pemex also paid more taxes to the government and registered a net loss of US$1.3 billion in the nine-month period.