Pemex Suffers an Old Problem in a New Oil Market
There’s always been a conflict between its commercial needs and the state’s, but now there’s the prospect of falling demand to consider.
A Pemex fuel pump in Mexico City.
Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg
As the global oil industry zigs, Petróleos Mexicanos zags with all it has. And zagging really isn’t working for it.
Not that this is all Pemex’s fault. Far from it. The state-owned national oil company has long been a piggy bank for the government, albeit with the important distinction that, unlike many other piggy banks, it never gets fully replenished. Hence, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was forced Tuesday morning to pledge more (as yet unspecified) aid for the company in coming days. Hence, also, the subsequent jump in Pemex’s bonds belies the structural problem here.