Porto, July 16, 2024 (Lusa) - Mota-Engil has signed an agreement in Mexico with a subsidiary of state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos to build an industrial unit, including a construction contract worth around €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion).
In a statement published with the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), Mota-Engil said that, through its subsidiary Mota-Engil México, it had "signed an agreement with Pemex Transformación Industrial, a subsidiary of the Mexican state oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), for the construction of a fertiliser industrial unit in Escolín, Poza Rica, Vera Cruz state".
According to the group, the "agreement aims to develop the engineering, construction, financing and operation of an ammonia, urea and Adblue production unit with an equivalent production of over 700,000 tonnes per year".
Mota-Engil explained that "the construction of this unit will reduce the import of fertilisers and significantly strengthen the productive autonomy of the agricultural sector in the country" and that it will "also promote environmental sustainability solutions, by reducing the emission of polluting gases released into the atmosphere, which the incorporation of Adblue into fuels promotes".
This contract establishes that the client "delivers the main raw materials (gas and water), while the operator is responsible for transforming them and delivering the final product", and, he assured, "there is no risk of variation in the price of the raw materials and/or liability in the commercialisation of the final product."
"The project will be developed in three phases, the first of which, lasting between four and six months, involves the development of engineering feasibility studies," said Mota-Engil, explaining that this will be followed by the construction phase, estimated at 42 months, "with an investment of $1.2 billion, followed by the technical operation phase of the unit for 20 years".
Under the agreement, remuneration "will be made through the tariffs corresponding to the availability payments during the industrial unit's 20-year operating period". The remuneration for the investment has "a fixed tariff, updated annually at the inflation rate, with the remuneration component of the operation indexed to performance", he emphasised.
Mota-Engil Mexico will be responsible for the overall coordination of the project, the group said, "integrating the associated company Duro Felguera, which will bring its vast experience and specialised know-how in industrial construction and energy in a first joint project".
The group anticipates "future partnerships with that associate in the energy transition and in industrial projects associated with the nearshoring phenomenon, where Mota-Engil Mexico "intends to position itself as a relevant promoter in strengthening Mexico's competitive capacity in the region in which it operates".
ALN/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
