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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plans by Mexican state
oil company Petroleos Mexicanos to cut jobs at its six refineries through
attrition this year could undermine safety at the plants, an internal company
document shows, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Pemex
plans to leave 9,374 vacancies at its refineries unfilled this year, 50% greater
than its unfilled refinery positions last year, the document by refining unit
Pemex TRI shows. Most unionized jobs at the politically sensitive company cannot
be easily eliminated nor filled by workers who are not members of Mexico’s
powerful oil workers union.
While the union is allowed to insist the jobs
be filled with its members, Pemex ultimately decides whether they will be filled
at all. “This situation leaves the refineries vulnerable because it puts the
operational continuity and maintenance of facilities at risk,” according to the
document, written by one Pemex executive to a superior warning about the
unfilled jobs.
There were 22,472 unionized and 1,297 non-unionized
workers at Pemex’s refineries, according to a document dated November 2020, seen
by Reuters. “It could cause incidents and/or accidents impacting personnel,
facilities the environment, and the delineation of corresponding
responsibilities due to the lack of coverage of the blocked places in question,”
the executive wrote.
If plans to cut jobs through attrition are put in
place, the Salamanca refinery in the heart of the country will be hit hardest
with 1,966 unfilled union jobs. Elsewhere, the Madero refinery in the north will
be left with 1,792 vacancies and the Minatitlan refinery near the Gulf of Mexico
would be left with 1,738.
Pemex did not respond to a request for comment
on the document nor on the number of refinery workers. The oil workers union did
not respond to a request for comment. The document does not state the reason for
leaving the union jobs unfilled. Debt-laden Pemex has repeatedly said it is
seeking to cut costs.
Pemex said in its 2019 annual report released last
year that it has eliminated 153 office jobs as well as 222 in its subsidiaries.
A source at the company, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there have
been no layoffs at the plants but declined to comment on the non-public document
and the safety allegations raised in the document.
Even though the
refineries have a combined processing capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day
(bpd), they process less than half of that, Pemex’s third-quarter financial
report showed. Under Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Pemex has
started allocating more resourcing to modernizing its ailing refineries - and
building a seventh one in his home state Tabasco - to help boost domestic
gasoline production.
Since taking office in 2018, Lopez Obrador has vowed
to reduce Mexico’s dependence on imported fuels by around 50% in an attempt to
revive Pemex, one of the world’s most indebted national oil companies.
As
per MRC, Pemex halted production
at its linear polyethylene (LLDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in
Veracruz, Mexico for unscheduled repairs. Repair activities at this enterprise
with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes of LLDPE and 100,000 tonnes of HDPE
per year were started on 14 January and should be completed next
week.
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE
imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and
reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the
greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia
increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months
of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase
in imports.
Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex
has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest
non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second
largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers,
as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS). |
