Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador attends the celebrations to mark the anniversary of the Mexico's Independence Day which falls on Sept. 16 in Mexico City, Mexico, Sept. 15, 2019. (Photo by Francisco Canedo/Xinhua)
Lopez Obrador said Mexico's six refineries were working at merely 38 percent capacity when he took office on Dec. 1, in part due to previous governments' misspending, but later with some initial investment the figure has been brought to 50 percent.
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Mexico is planning to further invest in oil refineries to raise output to 75 percent capacity by 2020, the country's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday.
Lopez Obrador said Mexico's six refineries were working at merely 38 percent capacity when he took office on Dec. 1, in part due to previous governments' misspending, but later with some initial investment the figure has been brought to 50 percent.
"We want to raise that to 75 percent by the end of next year," the president told a press conference, noting that a total of 12.5 billion pesos (about 642 million U.S. dollars) would be allocated this year to boost production at the six refineries across the country.
Despite being a leading crude oil producer, Mexico imports a large portion of oil products such as gasoline from the United States due to its limited capacity to refine fuels. Lopez Obrador noted that the planned output boost could ease the country's reliance on imports.
He also wanted to build a new refinery in Dos Bocas, the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, in a bid to make Mexico self-sufficient in supplying gasoline and diesel. ■
