Mexico’s Pemex reports record sales of ammonia

18 February 2009 23:06  [Source: ICIS news]

MEXICO CITY (ICIS news)--Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) sold record levels of ammonia fertilizer during December and January, Mexico’s state-run energy and petrochemicals giant said on Wednesday.

January’s sales figure of just over 108,000 tonnes was the highest in 10 years. Pemex said it sold 51,724 tonnes in December.

Pemex makes ammonia from natural gas at Cosoleacaque, a petrochemical complex in the southeast state of Veracruz. The complex has a capacity of 4.98m tonnes/year, but produced only 760,000 tonnes during 2007, the latest year for which figures are available.

According to Energy Ministry data, Mexico imports 2.4m tonnes of fertilisers a year.

Even with the recent gains, Pemex continues to produce much less fertilizer than it could.

Analysts blame the comparatively low production of ammonia on Pemex’s price transfer system, under which its natural gas division charges Pemex’s other units the same as it would cost to import the gas from the US, making large-scale production of many petrochemicals prohibitively expensive.

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By: Alex Manda
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