Exports of Mexican crude plummeted to the lowest in more than three decades this month as state oil company Pemex struggles to pay $20 billion of debt to suppliers, hampering its output.
Oil exports in January plunged 37% from a month earlier to about 577,000 barrels a day, the lowest in data going back to 1990, according to US Customs figures and port schedules compiled by Bloomberg. The sharp decline left US fuelmakers, the top foreign buyers of Mexico’s oil, searching for alternative supplies from Canada and Colombia.
Petroleos Mexicanos, the world’s most indebted oil producer, has been pumping …