Only Mexico’s Pemex is in talks with Vitol, eyes resume after bribery scandal

The Pemex logo is seen at its headquarters in Mexico City, Mexico on April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido/File Photo

Mexico City, August 10, 2010 – Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has made progress in talks with global energy trader Vitol to resume business ties that were cut off last year amid a bribery scandal. According to two sources in Pemex, the Mexican state oil company has been damaged.

The sources at Pemex ( PEMX.UL ) did not provide details or provide an estimate of how the damage from the scandal would be calculated. Vitol and Pemex declined to comment.

In the year In March 2021, Pemex said it was ending its business relationship with Vitol after the oil trader admitted to paying bribes to keep business in Mexico. Read more

At the time, Pimex said it had compensated Vitol for the damages, but the trader insisted on revealing the names of the Mexican officials who allegedly accepted the bribes and the specific relationships involved. Read more

In a May Pimex statement, Vitol previously offered $22 million in compensation, which included “work” on the Pajaritos ethanol terminal, without providing further details. Pemex said the offer was insufficient because it did not include the identity of those responsible for the corruption.

Later that month, Vitol disclosed the names, and since then discussions have been progressing between the two companies to resume trading, the two Pemex sources said.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the officials who accepted the bribes were part of the previous government.

Both sources said that no concrete decisions have been made regarding the resumption of business and Pemex’s lawyers are still analyzing some topics.

The sources did not provide a timeline for how long the talks might last. The improvement in speech has not been previously reported.

“We will start talks again, but we have not agreed anything yet (regarding the purchase of products). There are still many issues in the legal department,” said the source, one of which is compensation for damages.

Another senior source at Pemex confirmed that talks are taking place but nothing has been sealed, neither with new contracts nor with older ones.

“Now it depends on whether the compensation for damages is sufficient,” the source said, without specifying how much it should be.

Vitol’s U.S.-based subsidiary agreed to pay $164 million in late 2020 as part of a $164 million deferred prosecution agreement in a U.S. probe into corruption in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico. Vitol admitted to paying more than $2 million in bribes between the three countries.

Reuters reported that in 2021, Pemex told Vitol it had canceled its butane gas, naphtha and propane gas supply contracts.

Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Editing by David Gregorio

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