Mexico to stop exporting oil in 2023 in self-sufficiency quest

Mexico plans to end crude oil exports in 2023 as part of a strategy by the nationalist government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to reach self-sufficiency in the domestic fuels market.

Petroleos Mexicanos, the Mexican state-owned producer known as Pemex, will reduce crude oil exports to 435,000 barrels a day in 2022 before phasing out sales to clients abroad the following year, Chief Executive Officer Octavio Romero said during a press conference in Mexico City on Tuesday.

The move is part of a drive by Lopez Obrador to expand Mexico’s domestic production of fuels instead of sending its oil abroad while it imports costly refined products, like gasoline and diesel. Mexico currently buys the bulk of the fuels it consumes from U.S. refineries.

If fulfilled, Pemex’s pledge will mark the withdrawal from the international oil market by one of it’s most prominent players of the past decades.