Mexico’s Pemex Needs More Than Money to Turn Itself Around
- Mexico president to add new aid package to existing tax breaks
- Ending reforms may put company at a disadvantage, analysts say
An attendant fuels a bus at a Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) gas station in Mexico City, Mexico.
Photographer: Luis Antonio Rojas/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The Mexican government’s planned aid package for Petroleos Mexicanos could be slapping on a Band-Aid when a tourniquet is needed to stem the bleeding.
Pemex, the most indebted oil company in the world, saw its annual oil output fall to the lowest since at least 1990 last year, and Fitch Ratings downgraded its bonds last week to one notch above junk. Now Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s new president, is promising to announce within days a financial aid package for the company that will buttress the 66 billion pesos in tax breaks over six years that was announced last month.