Pemex’s $12.5b refinery sees higher costs

Bloomberg

Petroleos Mexicanos’ beleaguered mega-refinery project in Dos Bocas could run at least $4.7 billion over budget with just months to go before its grand opening.
Pemex, as the state-owned oil company is known, has budgeted $12.5 billion for the project through the end of 2022, and is expected to spend some $2 billion more on the project, according to company filings and a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
That raises the total project cost to $14.5 billion, sharply higher than the $9.8 billion estimated by Energy Minister Rocio Nahle in April.
The 340,000-barrel-a-day Dos Bocas plant — the crown jewel of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s nationalist goal of energy independence — has been beset with delays and ballooning costs since it was announced. Amlo plans to inaugurate the refinery, dubbed Olmeca, in July, though it won’t be operating by then.