Tag Archives: Dos Bocas refinery

Mexico goes all-in on refining

February 21, 2022Energy, Politics4T, AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Deer Park refinery, diesel, Dos Bocas refinery, gasoline, Mexican energy policy, Pemex, petroleum, refiningTom

Mexico’s state-owned national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) announced earlier this year that it plans to significantly reduce crude petroleum exports in 2022 and phase out crude exports altogether by the end of 2023. The news was reported widely in domestic and international media. We have criticized President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in this space, but in fairness we must acknowledge that he is clearly not afraid to launch bold and decisive new public policy initiatives, for better or worse. We continue to question, however, whether many of them are a good idea. Continue reading Mexico goes all-in on refining →

Mexico facing three more years of torpor under AMLO

December 21, 2021Economy, Energy, PoliticsAMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Claudia Sheinbaum, Dos Bocas refinery, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican economy, Mexican election 2024, Mexican politics, Ricardo MonrealTom

As 2021 draws to a close and the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) reaches its halfway point, the president has achieved at least one of his principal objectives: He is the only topic in Mexico. In Trumpian fashion, AMLO has extinguished any hope that anything constructive will be accomplished during his reign, and all subjects now revolve around him. ‘AMLO is a catastrophe, we are doomed!’ ‘AMLO is a saint, we are delivered!’ And on a more mundane level, will AMLO let anyone do business in this country, other than his protected devotees (who are making bank while the going is good)? He has become a political Santa Claus, who knows who’s been naughty (the private sector) and who’s been nice (the military and anyone professing blind fealty to him), and he will continue to stuff the stockings of the nice with gifties like newly-created public enterprises and juicy no-tender contracts, while the coal will keep coming for the naughty. Continue reading Mexico facing three more years of torpor under AMLO →

COVID blows AMLO legacy for lovers and haters alike

September 30, 2020Economy, Energy, PoliticsAMLO, AMLO legacy, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Dos Bocas refinery, Lopez Obrador, Marcelo Ebrard, Maya Train, Morena, Pemex, PRI, republican austerity, Santa Lucia airportTom

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic devastation and loss of life around the world, and we are now coming to the conclusion that the disease will rob us of one more thing some of us very much looked forward to seeing: The historical verdict on an AMLO government. All our lives (or at least, in our case, since the López Portillo administration), we have parroted the same truisms about Mexican society: that all politicians are corrupt, the unions are corrupt, Pemex is corrupt, the police are corrupt, and generally that él que no transa no avanza — he who doesn’t engage in corruption doesn’t get ahead. Continue reading COVID blows AMLO legacy for lovers and haters alike →