Brazil Eyes Petrobras-Pemex Alliance for Gulf of Mexico Oil Exploration
March 23, 2026
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday he had proposed a partnership between state-run energy firms Petrobras of Brazil and Pemex of Mexico to explore oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Pemex could get a great deal of help from Petrobras," Lula told an event, saying he had called Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to pitch the idea while highlighting Petrobras' long-established expertise in deepwater oil production.
Petrobras, Pemex and Sheinbaum's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Petrobras operates in the Gulf through a joint venture with Murphy Exploration & Production. Pemex has been trying to push ahead with complex Gulf projects, including the Lakach deepwater gas development, even as production from its older offshore fields continues to fall.
Lula also said Petrobras would seek to buy back a refinery in Bahia state that was sold to Abu Dhabi's sovereign fund Mubadala in 2021, under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
"They sold the Bahia refinery; we will buy it back. It may take a while, but we will," Lula said, referring to the Mataripe refinery, now controlled by Mubadala-owned Acelen.
Acelen directed a request for comment to Mubadala, which declined to respond.
The refinery, formerly known as Landulpho Alves, is one of Brazil's largest refineries and was the most emblematic refinery sale completed under Petrobras' previous divestment program.
(Reuters - Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Fabio Teixeira and Marta Nogueira; Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Kylie Madry, Rod Nickel)
