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NATIONAL OIL COMPANY

The new government entered into power with There is a common perception
strong majority support in the Union Congress, that Pemex is ultimately
which will allow it to have broad infl uence during its
6-year mandate (until 2024). “backstopped by the Mexican
government but, should
economic and geopolitical
Pemex Current Financial factors excessively weaken
Situation AMLO’s government, Pemex will

At the time of writing, Pemex is the world’s most lose its strongest protector
indebted NOC, owing about US$ 108 billion. In
2017, Pemex concluded the year with a consolida-
ted net loss of about US$14,19 billion.
AMLO’s Energy Policy
Pemex is currently the most During the political campaign, AMLO had, on va-
debt-laden NOC due to long- rious occasions, taken a public position against
the privatization of the oil and gas sector that was
“term mismanagement and has approved under Peña Nieto. AMLO was elected
been downgraded by Fitch and on 1 July 2018 but, given peculiar Mexican legisla-
tion, only took offi ce on 1 December of the same
Standard and Poor year. During those fi ve months, there had been a
lot of speculation in the international media as well
On 29 January 2019, Fitch cut Pemex’s Issuer De- as in the world business community over whether
fault Ratings (IDRs) for foreign and local currencies AMLO, considering his strong majority support in
to BBB- from BBB+, and its national long-term the Union Congress, would dismantle some im-
ratings to AA (mex) from AAA (mex), stating that portant reforms including above all the oil and gas
the “downgrades refl ect the continued deteriora- one. In particular, these speculations passed from
tion of Pemex’s standalone credit profi le” and that a very pessimistic Chavez’s style scenario, where-
the company “has been technically insolvent since by AMLO would have immediately turned Mexico
2009.” into what Chavez had immediately started to do
On 4 March 2019, Standard and Poor cut its in Venezuela after his election; through an interme-
stand-alone assessment of Pemex from “BB-“ to diate position, that could be defi ned as Lula’s style,
“B” refl ecting growing concern over the fi nancial who implemented many anti-market policies and
situation of the Mexican NOC. strengthened the monopoly of the state in some
key sectors like oil and gas but still remained within
the boundaries of a democratic regime; to a more
optimistic view, that could somehow resemble the
situation of Bachelet in Chile, who strengthened
many social policies but did not dismantle Chile-
an pro-market legislation. During the fi rst months
of his election (and before he took offi ce on 1 De-
cember 2018), AMLO had cordial meetings with
the business world, providing reassurances to na-
tional and international entrepreneurs on the futu-
re of the country. These fi rst meetings generated
confi dence between the new government and the
business community which somehow perceived
that AMLO’s government would be able to provi-
de certainties and guarantees to Mexico, orienting
the new administration towards prosperity and re-
ducing social disparities within the country. Soon
after, however, this initial positive perception from
the business community was over. The construc-
tion of the new Mexico City airport, a pharaonic
project approved under President Peña Nieto, was
abruptly cancelled through the organization of a
disputed referendum (only one million people who
went to vote in a country of 129 million).
In relation to oil and gas, the Peña Nieto’s reform
On the left, Pena Nieto involved a fi rst wave of auctions and contracts is-

80 80 Impiantistica Italiana - Maggio-Giugno 2019