Letter from Mexico: Amlo’s vanity project gets ever more expensive

Costs continue to spiral at a downstream development the utility of which was always questionable

The Olmeca refinery under construction at the port of Dos Bocas in Mexican president Andres Lopez Obrador’s home state of Tabasco is central to his ambitions to both assure energy sovereignty and, generally, restore state oil firm Pemex to what the leftist sees as its former glory. The flagship project will add 340,000bl/d to the nation’s current processing capacity of 1.6mn bl/d from Pemex’s other six refineries. But it is described by one local journalist as “the most opaque construction project” in Mexican history. And industry analysts and the general public alike have been frequently left in the dark regarding its progress and cost. The president insists the refinery will be ready in ti