The Olmeca refinery, located in the Port of Dos Bocas, Tabasco, is among a select group of refineries that ended up costing more than 100 percent of their initial budget, according to data presented by Julio Cesar Rentería Sandoval, president of the Refining Committee of the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers (IMIQ).
To date, the Olmeca refinery’s cost has reached $20.959 billion, representing a 135 percent increase over its initial construction budget of $8.9 billion.
Thus, Dos Bocas was ranked as the refinery with the greatest cost overrun in an analysis of nine refineries built in recent years worldwide.
The other two refineries that ended up exceeding their cost by more than 100 percent are located in Kuwait and Egypt.
Kuwait’s Al-Zour Refinery Doubles Initial Cost
Broken down, it can be seen that Kuwait’s Al-Zour refinery had an initial budget of $16 billion and ended up costing $35.154 billion, representing a 120 percent increase.
However, this refinery has almost double the refining capacity of Dos Bocas, as it can process 615,000 barrels of crude oil per day and was built over 11 years.
Another example is Egypt’s Mostorod refinery, which, despite having an original budget of $3.7 billion, ended up costing $7.889 billion after 10 years of construction, 113 percent more.
However, Julio César Rentería pointed out that increases in refinery costs are a common occurrence in the sector.
“The Olmeca refinery is barely entering its sixth year, when normal refinery construction takes between five and seven years,” he said during the LARPET 2025 Forum.
He also noted that dividing the refinery’s $20 billion cost by its installed processing capacity (340,000 barrels per day) yields a cost of $61.6 thousand invested per barrel of cargo processed in the design.
“We are within typical refinery values around the world,” he noted.
Furthermore, Fermín Narváez Camacho, former refinery manager at Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), noted that the National Refining System (SNR) has several pending issues, such as increasing its efficiency and utilization, increasing the occupational value of crude oil processing capacity, and increasing labor productivity.
Source: elfinanciero
