No injuries following second fire in two months at Mexico’s newest refinery

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MEXICAN state oil company Petróleos Mexicano (PEMEX) has said its Olmeca Refinery continues to operate safely following a fire last week – the second blaze at the facility since March. 

No injuries were reported in the fire on 9 April which was confined to a warehouse storing petroleum coke, a byproduct of processing heavy crude fractions.

The refinery, on the Gulf coast in Tabasco state, began operations in 2024. The latest incident follows another fire in March in which five people were killed. 

That earlier event was caused when oily water overflowed beyond the refinery’s perimeter after heavy rain and ignited on a neighbouring road, killing four contractors in a vehicle. 

Process safety consultant and IChemE Fellow Nigel Bowker said the incident highlights potential issues around drainage design. “Once hydrocarbons got outside the plant battery limit they would encounter sources of ignition that would not be present on the plant itself,” he said.

It is not clear how the latest fire broke out, although PEMEX has confirmed it is reviewing the incident to determine the causes. The company confirmed the blaze had been suffocated around five hours after it was first reported. 

CEO Víctor Rodríguez Padilla visited the refinery shortly after, while Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said she was in direct contact with operators.

Production issues

Also known as Dos Bocas, Olmeca is the newest of Mexico’s seven refineries, each owned by PEMEX. It was the country’s first refinery to be built in 40 years and came amid previous president André Manuel López Obrador’s drive for greater energy self-sufficiency.

The refinery has struggled to meet its designed capacity of 340,000 bbl/d, however. As of January 2026, it was operating at a peak of 207,000 bb/d, producing no more than 181,000 bbl/d of refined products. 

Startup has also been marked by repeated delays since its inauguration in 2022, while construction costs more than doubled to US$21bn. 

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported US imports of Mexican refined petroleum had fallen to their lowest level in 16 years, as Olmeca ramped up and other domestic refineries increased output. Mexican crude exports have also declined in recent years as more supply is processed domestically.