Pemex’s Olmeca refinery in Tabasco is set to progressively restart operations after the state-owned company confirmed that a satellite communication failure was responsible for a work outage last week.

Located in Dos Bocas, in the municipality of Paraíso, construction on the Olmeca refinery began in August 2019 during the administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. While it began operations in 2022, the refinery has been testing and commissioning ahead of full commercial operation.

According to Pemex, the incident occurred during electrical load balancing procedures, as operators adjusted a turbo generator. Satellite communication with an airflow control device failed, triggering the automatic activation of a cogeneration plant’s heat recovery units. That led to a general steam failure, resulting immediate shutdown of the processing plants.

As a result of the incident, “the complex’s electrical load was reduced from 130 to 65 megawatts per hour, resulting in the gas turbo generators shutting down at 00:59 hours on April 26, 2025.” 

Pemex was quick to point out that the shutdown did not put staff, nearby communities, the refinery or the environment at risk.

When asked during a press conference if she thought the shutdown was due to an act of sabotage, President Claudia Sheinbaum dismissed the possibility but added that an investigation would still be necessary. 

“[This] needs to be investigated, but it’s not like the refinery is out of service now. It’s nothing serious,” she said, adding that the refinery was producing 100,000 barrels per day.

Olmeca processed 6,797 barrels per day in February and none in January, after the company reported problems with higher-than-usual salt and water content in the crude oil Pemex pumps. 

According to the Dos Bocas National Port System administration, between 2024 and 2025, the refinery’s pipes transported 4 million barrels of oil products, with diesel as the main product.. During the same period, 7.6 million processed barrels of hydrocarbons, mostly diesel, were imported from the United States and other Mexican ports.

The refinery has a capacity to process 340,000 barrels per day. Pemex CEO Victor Rodriguez Padilla said last month that Olmeca would reach full capacity this year. 

With reports from El Heraldo de Tabasco, Reuters, and El Economista