Pemex Attributes 138,000 Barrels per Day, 1 in 12, to Operational Adjustments

Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) formally rejected on July 16, 2026 the notion that crude oil has disappeared from its records and attributed the 137,900 barrels per day with no reported destination in its balance (equivalent to 1 in every 12 barrels produced between January and May) to operational variables overlooked by press reporting.

The newspaper Reforma published a report on July 16 based on two independent studies by consultants Gustavo Sánchez Lugo (Energy2100) and Francisco Barnés de Castro (Cifra2 Consultores), which found that Pemex failed to record the destination of 8.34 percent of its crude production in the first five months of the year. Through an information sheet, Pemex responded that the volumetric balance must account not only for crude processed and exported, but also for the volume sent to the National Refining System (SNR) and to export points, plus inventory movements, pipeline packing and unpacking, and temperature adjustments.

The company added that losses from illegal fuel theft fell 30.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, dropping from 5,471 million pesos in the same period of 2025 to 3,812 million pesos, according to the information sheet cited by Excélsior. Pemex, however, did not break down the specific volumes allocated to each operational process. On the specialists' side, Barnés de Castro noted that Pemex's total storage capacity is approximately 17.5 million barrels, insufficient to absorb the cumulative shortfall of 86.4 million barrels between 2021 and May 2026. Specialist Ramsés Pech called for an independent external audit to review production, destination, and transparent publication of results, with full traceability from production fields to refineries and export points, reported El Diario.

The controversy focuses attention on the traceability of the national crude balance. The dispute between Pemex's operational explanation and the specialists' demand will determine whether Congress or oversight bodies require an independent review of the destination of every barrel produced.

This article was drafted with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.