World’s deadliest Covid-19 company named

Pemex has reported the deaths of 314 employees and seven contract workers from Covid-19. That’s not only scores more than at all the rest of the world’s major oil companies combined. It’s also the largest number of any company anywhere.

Ground zero is the platforms: By Aug. 13, 36 of Pemex’s 7,500 platform workers had died from Covid-19, meaning those workers were more than twice as likely as other Pemex employees to die from the disease and 10 times as likely as the average Mexican citizen. And while its policies and procedures are now more rigorous, Pemex is still suffering from big outbreaks. In August a huge floating Pemex oil processing and storage facility off the coast of Campeche state halted operations for six days because of an outbreak.

And yet Pemex keeps pumping, despite the collapse of oil prices in March and April, and in defiance of a global trend in which the oil and gas industry is expected to cut $100 billion in exploration and production spending, according to consulting company Rystad Energy AS.

Pemex is a key source of government revenue, and of national pride. A decline in production could have political consequences for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

On April 13, Pemex said it had put into effect an emergency plan to combat Covid on offshore platforms. Workers on those platforms say the company was slow to sanitize the working and living spaces, reduce the number of personnel, evacuate sick employees, and provide diagnostic tests for Covid-19 before people boarded.