Mexico’s Dos Bocas Emerges as Pemex’s Top Refinery in December

Pemex’s 340,000 b/d Dos Bocas refinery became the Mexican state-owned oil company best-performing plant in December, processing 263,402 b/d of crude, its highest output since it began running crude in 2024.

Dos Bocas operated at a 77% utilization rate last month, meeting Pemex’s year-end target of reaching a processing rate of about 260,000 b/d, according to company data released this week.

According to the report, Pemex’s seven domestic refineries processed a 1.2 million b/d in December, up 6.7% from November. December’s processing rate was the highest of 2025. The figure also represents a 39.4% increase year over year.

Despite December’s gain, Pemex fell short of its overall 2025 crude processing goal of 1.297 million b/d. The company finished the year with 1.013 million b/d of crude processing, nearly 22% short of the target.

Pemex’s 270,000-b/d Tula and 340,000-b/d Salina Cruz refineries followed Dos Bocas, processing an average of 220,650 b/d average and 210,200 b/d, respectively, last month. That was down 11.4% from November for the Tula facility and marked a 6.6% month-to-month increase for the Salina Cruz plant.

Energy consultant Gonzalo Monroy said earlier this month that monitoring Dos Bocas’ performance throughout 2026 will be important in assessing whether Pemex will be able to meet it goal of reaching an annual processing rate of 1.559 million b/d.

“We knew there would be a significant ramp-up at Dos Bocas,” he said, adding that system and integration tests at Tula and Salina Cruz’s cooking units, which “have historically been a headache for Pemex,” also play a large role in determining whether Pemex can reach its 2026 goals.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum earlier this month visited the Tula refinery and said modernization work at the facility are scheduled to be completed this year.

Reporting by José Luis Adriano, jadriano@opisnet.com; Editing by Karla Omaña, komana@opisnet.com and Jeffrey Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com