A miracle at the refinery: Pemex is resurrected (and everyone applauds)
In a turn of events that no one, absolutely no one, saw coming (well, maybe someone in a national palace), President Claudia Sheinbaum announced from the picturesque Atitalaquia, Hidalgo that Petróleos Mexicanos is no longer the poor relation of the global oil industry. The evidence? A hydrodesulfurization reactor of gasoline that was placed with the same ceremony that is reserved for sacred relics. This device, they tell us, is the key piece for the Tula refinery to stop coughing black smoke and start producing gasoline that, attention to detail, “affects health less.” What a revolutionary concept!
The president, with the enthusiasm of someone who has just discovered the wheel, declared that this is part of the modernization of eight refineries that, in an almost supernatural act of coordination, are producing “more than a million barrels per day.” “This has not been seen for two decades,” he proclaimed, as if the simple passage of time were a state policy of previous governments. According to their narrative, we now have energy sovereignty, that magical term that justifies everything, from a reactor to a speech.
The villain of the movie: the neoliberal ghost
Of course, no fairy tale is complete without a villain. In this story, the role is played by the past neoliberal governments, those evil ones who, according to the official script, dedicated themselves with relish to dismantling, indebting and almost selling the jewel in the crown to make way for private companies. The result? A drop in production that, surprise, is now being reversed thanks to the Fourth Transformation. What a coincidence that the recovery coincides precisely with the need for triumphalist speeches.
The director of ICA Group, Guadalupe Phillips, detailed with engineering precision that this year the modernization of Tula will be completed, with 12 thousand direct workers and 35 thousand jobs generated. One wonders if they also counted the man who sells tamales outside the plant. Meanwhile, the director of Pemex, Víctor Rodríguez Padilla, dropped the pearl that the price per barrel in Tula is 13 dollars and celebrated that Mexico now exports diesel instead of importing it. An undoubtedly positive fact, which makes us forget for a second the mountain of debt that the parastatal still carries.
The governor of Hidalgo, Menchaca Salazar, could not miss the event to reaffirm his support for the president and her “leadership for conflict resolution.” Because nothing says “conflict resolution” like construction supervision in a refinery. Coherence, like sulfur in fuel, is reduced to minimal levels.
In short, they want us to believe that overnight Pemex went from being a terminal patient in the ICU to an Olympic refining athlete. Reactors are placed, speeches are given, culprits for the past are pointed out and a new golden age is announced. The public, between incredulous and hopeful, watches the spectacle. Only time will tell if this is the true takeoff of the Mexican oil industry or simply another act in the theater of national energy policy.
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