Mexico's Olmeca refinery halted operations on Monday, internal reports show

MEXICO CITY, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Mexico's Olmeca refinery, located in the Gulf port of Dos Bocas and run by state oil firm Pemex, halted its operations on Monday due to a power failure, according to two internal reports seen by Reuters.

A source told Reuters that Olmeca began restarting operations at its units on Tuesday.

When asked whether operations had resumed, Pemex told Reuters it would consult with the relevant departments. Pemex had said on Monday that it had initiated a safe shutdown after a change in pressure that caused smoking in its catalytic converter.

Pemex said at the time that crude oil processing conditions were under control.

The reports showed that Olmeca shut down its coking plant, catalytic plant and hydrodesulphurization plants due to the outage. One of the internal reports said the processing of 150,000 barrels of crude oil was delayed at the time of the shutdown.

Located in the southern state of Tabasco, Olmeca is among Mexico's largest refineries. It has faced a series of operating problems and remains far from its maximum processing capacity of 340,000 barrels per day (bpd).

In August last year, it shut down due to another power outage, just four months after another shutdown due to an incident at one of its units. The plant began operations in 2024.

In December 2025, Olmeca processed 263,402 bpd of crude, according to Pemex data, its highest level since it began operations.