The Mexican government seems to be drawing from the Nigerian playbook. Bloomberg reports the country’s Finance Ministry just withdrew $3.4billion from Pemex, the state oil company and their own equivalent of NNPC. Before now, the country collects money from Pemex via taxation and royalties., however, they just decided to dip into the coffers of the company and took away $3.4 billion. Just like that!!!
It’s something we are well too familiar with here in Nigeria as our government regularly withdraws money from NNPC accounts without any form of accountability.. I have a friend who calls the NNPC the ATM of this Government. Mexico funds about 33% of its budget via cash from Pemex same with Nigeria so it’s not surprising that they both depend on their state-owned oil company for finances. Till today NNPC is yet to publish its annual reports.