Pemex Approves Five-Year Plan to Expand Overseas

The board of Petroleos Mexicanos, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, approved the company’s five-year business plan to expand its international presence, including buying U.S. refineries.

The board of the state-owned company known as Pemex approved its medium-term plan for 2013 to 2017, Fluvio Ruiz, a director, said today in a phone interview from Mexico City. A new “internationalization strategy” to buy U.S. refining assets and join overseas exploration projects was integrated in the plan, he said.

Pemex is seeking to gain deep-water drilling experience outside Mexico to reverse seven years of output declines, Ruiz said. The company is also planning to boost refining capacity by purchasing a refinery or a stake in the U.S. as asset prices can be lower than building a new complex.

“The approval of the internationalization strategy will expedite these kind of projects,” Ruiz said. Among the plants available for sale in the U.S. are BP Plc (BP/)’s Carson and Texas City refineries.

Ruiz, who is one of the four independent directors added to Pemex’s 15-person board in 2009, said May 10 that some of Pemex’s previous attempts to expand outside Mexico failed because the company lacked an international strategy. The 5-year plans are reviewed and updated annually.

To contact the reporter on this story: Carlos Manuel Rodriguez in Mexico City at carlosmr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net