Resumen

IBARRA, David. The Dismantlement of Pemex. Economía UNAM [online]. 2008, vol.5, n.13, pp.9-29. ISSN 1665-952X.

Pemex and petroleum have given rise to a debate charged with ideological fictions, some of them with proclivities for the foreign, others for nationalism, and, overall, with a large number of criticisms of the devolpment-centered institutions created by a much attacked Mexican Revolution. For some time now there has been a clear privatization tendency whose expression may be found in an increasing transfer of functions and utilities from Pemex to usually foreign entrepreneurs. As a consequence, a black legend has been created, in which Pemex is qualified as a center of squandering and corruption, while enterprise and market contributions leading to efficiency have been idealized. It is falsely adduced that public finances offer no maneuvering opportunities to capitalize Pemex, whilst progressive taxes are lowered and excessive costs in the external and internal debt service are covered. There are, without doubt, corruption, an excessive number of employees and backward productive practices in Pemex. Yet, the main reason for its weaknesses lays elsewhere. The true cause may be found in the massive transfer of oil income to the Treasury, to the point of putting Pemex in the red despite its huge utilities prior to taxation. During a quarter of a century, such a situation has limited the investment of a demanding extractive industry, prevented its modernization, the optimization of productive chains, and weakened the internal capacity to design, prepare and control capital formation projects from the exploration and development of hydrocarbon to petrochemical refining and industry. No more deferment should be allowed, it is an urgent task to conceive a national strategy in the energetic field, in which a reconstruction of Pemex should stand as an obligatory topic.

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