López Obrador wants to increase Mexico's oil production

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López Obrador

will seek to increase Mexico's oil production to 2.5 million bpd

Mexican president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador

, said on Friday that his administration will look to boost the country’s oil production to 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from the 1.9 million bpd produced now.

López Obrador,

who will take office on December 1, has said that he is committed to expanding Mexico’s oil and gas output , which has declined steadily over the past 14 years due to a lack of investment and natural depletion of oil fields.

The leftist leader said he will look to revam p the nation’s six refineries so they are operating at full capacity within two years, and plans to build a new refinery in Dos Bocas in Mexico’s southern Tabasco state with an investment of MXN $160 billion (USD $8.6 billion) over three years.

“With this new refinery and the rehabilitation of the six that already exist we’re going to make good on our campaign promise of stop ping purchases of gasoline abroad and of lowering fuel prices by the middle of (my) six-year term ,” he said.

Mexico

has imported an average of about 590,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline and anothe r 232,000 bpd of diesel this year , almost all of it from the US , as gasoline output at the country’s six refineries owned and operated by state-run Pemex has halved since 2013, the beginning of President Peña Nieto's term.

He nominated Rocio Nahle , who also won a Senate seat in the election, to be the Energy Secretary and named Octavio Romero Oropeza to be Pemex’s next chief executive .

López Obrador

said that his government would look to increase electricity production by revamping Mexico’s hydroelectric power stations.

“We’re going to start by modernizing hydroelectric plants because we have underutilized infrastructure. We’re going to generate electricity with the dams that currently exist,” he said.

López Obrador said he expects his administration to invest MXN $175 billion (USD $9.4 billion) next year to strengthen the energy sector.