Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has issued a 10-year bond worth at least $1.5 billion to refinance debt, two company sources said on Tuesday, as the cash-strapped state oil firm moved to secure financing during the first quarter.
“The funds obtained will be to pay bonds maturing this year,” one of the sources told Reuters, noting that Pemex planned to raise at least $1.5 to $2.0 billion to relieve financial pressure during the first quarter.
Pemex, one of the world’s most heavily indebted oil companies, declined to comment.
Refinitiv news and market analysis service IFR said Pemex had launched a 10-year bond expected to price on Tuesday.
Pemex’s debt payments due for the first quarter of 2023 stand between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, the firm’s Chief Executive Octavio Romero said this month.
The debt payments the company was due to make in January were being met with its own funds, the source said.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week the company will have “complete support” from the government, and that it had a plan to ensure pending bond payments are met.
Pemex had financial debts of some $105 billion at the end of the third quarter, when it posted losses of nearly $2.6 billion.
The left-leaning Lopez Obrador has made turning around Pemex’s fortunes a priority of his administration.
He has pumped in billions of dollars to support the company and to boost domestic production of motor fuels by refining more of Pemex’s crude oil production at home.
Crude output has fallen by around half since peaking in 2004 at 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd). Crude production has risen for the last three years, but is still below the 2018 average.
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