Oil well study will be used for new refinery: Nahle

Mexico's energy ministry will use existing environmental impact studies for oil wells rather than a new study to move forward with building a planned 340,000 b/d refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco.

"We based our projections [of the refinery] on this study of environmental impact that was done for 60 oil wells previously," energy minister Rocio Nahle said today. "It is already done, there is no problem. We are currently working on complementing this study from the wells [but] for the refinery."

The planned new refinery to be tendered in March is part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's plan to reverse Mexico's years-long decline in output of crude and refined products and wean the country off US imports.

The existing environmental impact study covered activity planned from 2007 through 2026 and included the impact of flares, pipelines and infrastructure needed to drill wells on the area.

Nahle justified repurposing the oil well environmental study by saying it was "a much more in-depth study than the one needed for a refinery."

Greenpeace and the Mexican independent center of environmental law (CEMDA) filed a complaint against the project with Mexico's federal agency of security and environment (ASEA) on 9 December. The government has already started clearing forested land where the refinery is planned.

"The deforestation has started without the necessary permits for changing use of the land or the necessary study of environmental impact," Greenpeace said. "These are essential to carry out any construction of this magnitude."

The complaint said neither state-owned Pemex nor the energy ministry have presented any kind of environmental studies.

"There is no public record in any of Mexico's institutions that relate to any type of environmental study for a refinery in this area," CEMDA said. "The only antecedent on record is from 2011 and it was to allow the change in land rights for a hospital Pemex wanted to build."

Mexico's new government has said once the new refinery is in operation and the six existing ones are at full capacity by 2022, Pemex will be able to process 1.8mn b/d of crude that will yield an estimated 781,000 b/d of gasoline and 560,000 b/d of diesel — almost four times current output. This plan is aimed at weaning Mexico off of increasing imports from the US.

In October, Pemex processed 485,000 b/d of crude in its six refineries producing 492,000 b/d of refined products, including 171,700 b/d of gasoline and 83,700 b/d of diesel.