Pemex to struggle with ambitious targets

The latest five-year plan compounds pressure on the already financially handicapped NOC

Mexican president Andres Lopez Obrador is sticking with his bullish outlook for domestic oil and gas production, despite his country repeatedly failing to meet annual upstream targets. NOC Pemex’s latest five-year plan—released in December—anticipates domestic crude production growing by 28pc by 2027. The state producer also expects to end 2024 at 1.965mn bl/d, way below the 2.480mn bl/d figure the firm initially predicted back in early 2019, but arguably still an overly ambitious target. “Pemex has failed to reach its production targets every year since Obrador took office in 2018,” explains Omar Rios, a research analyst at upstream consultancy Welligence Energy Analytics. “Production has b