The decree of its expropriation was published in Official newspaper Mexican Friday February 9, but since December 29, 2023, the fate seemed sealed for the Air Liquide hydrogen plant in the refinery of the public oil company Pemex, in Tula (State of Hidalgo). The Mexican government had, in fact, taken control of the site and asked the employees of the French group not to return.
In this decree, the factory was thus classified “of public utility” SO “ that there is no autonomy of hydrogen supply but dependence on a third party [Air liquide], jeopardizing the production of gasoline and diesel », estimates the Ministry of Energy. Air Liquide has fifteen days to contact the government, which makes no mention of compensation in this decree.
Neither the French company, nor the Mexican government, nor Pemex wished to comment. To understand this exceptional gesture, we must go back to the mandate of President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), who ended Pemex’s monopoly on oil and gas activities after an energy reform adopted in 2013. The oil fields but also many Pemex activities, including hydrogen, are given under concession. In 2018, Air Liquide acquired this factory for $52 million (around 48.5 million euros) and the right to operate it for twenty years. The German Linde obtains a contract in the Francisco-I.-Madero refinery in Ciudad Madero (State of Tamaulipas) for 32 million dollars.
“Complicated negotiation”
But as soon as he came to power in 2018, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (known as “AMLO”) wanted “launch a Pemex rescue plan” to obtain a “energy sovereignty” : despite six refineries, nearly 60% of Mexican gasoline is imported.
Octavio Romero Oropeza, the new director of Pemex, regularly participates in the president’s press conferences. On May 12, 2021, he mentioned hydrogen and recalled that the Peña Nieto administration “tried to sell all our hydrogen plants, but they only managed to sell Tula and Madero”, or the factories managed by Air Liquide and Linde.
The director of Pemex particularly attacks the French company: “We’ve already paid them over $49 million, but there’s still 15 years left on the contract, which will have us paying $261 million for a plant we received $52 million for. » However, as energy expert Ramses Pech points out, “Today, Pemex has financial difficulties, and the negotiation could be complicated with Air Liquide, depending on the conditions included in the contract. In any case, this decree will create a precedent in the energy sector. From now on, companies that enter into a service contract will hesitate to partner with Pemex”.