by Everardo Martínez

Reduced sales and increased operating costs explain how profits went from 56,736 million pesos to 4,682 million pesos.

The net profits of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) decreased by 92% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, according to their financial report released this Friday.

The company had reported a profit of 56,736 million pesos between January and March 2023, but in the same period this year, the amount of net profits decreased to 4,682 million pesos.

“The main factors contributing to this variation were the decrease in total sales and exchange rate performance, an increase in cost of sales, offset by a decrease in fixed asset impairment and lower taxes and duties,” the company noted.

However, despite these results, the company managed to further reduce its debt from $106.055 billion at the end of 2023 to $101.499 billion, as indicated in the financial report.

This was mainly due to the support the company receives from the federal government as capital contributions, which this year amount to more than 145 billion pesos.

According to the presentation, these resources will be transferred to Pemex according to a schedule established with the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, and it will be in September 2024 when the transfers for that amount will conclude.

Moreover, the negative profit result is accompanied by an improvement in the company’s refining performance.

In the first quarter of 2024, crude oil processing in the National Refining System (SNR) showed recovery by averaging 985,000 barrels per day, due to better performance in the six refineries.

In particular, in March 2024, the best monthly crude oil processing in eight years was achieved with one million 62 thousand barrels per day.

As a result, the variable refining margin of the SNR was again in positive values, averaging $12.96 per barrel, showing a recovery compared to the previous quarter, which indicated that for each barrel processed, Pemex lost $3.53.

Reference