14 April 2016•Update: 22 April 2016
By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
The state-run oil company here will receive $4 billion in aid, Mexico's federal government said Wednesday. Finances at Pemex has been hit hard by the collapse in crude oil prices.
The assistance will come April 15 in the form of $1.5 billion in a capital injection and $2.7 billion to cover pension and retirement payments for the remainder the year, according to finance ministry undersecretary Miguel Messmacher Linartas.
“Pemex is facing a number of liquidity problems – not a solvency problem – derived from the steep fall in international oil prices. But the condition for this monetary aid is that Pemex must continue to work on its efficiency in this low oil prices conjuncture”, said Messmacher Linartas.
The infusion will not endanger Mexico’s public finances, he said. “The government does not face liquidity problems, Pemex does.”
In an effort to reduce spending, Pemex announced in February that it would cut $5.5 billion from its budget by delaying projects and reduce crude oil extraction by 100,000 barrels per day.
Messmacher Linartas said the government would also authorize changes to Pemex’s tax scheme that could allow the company to reduce its tax payment by $2.8 billion annually.
Pemex registered a record after-tax loss of $30 billion in 2015.
In March, the country’s crude oil was trading at $37.34, slightly more than a third of its March 2014 trading price of $104.
