In a muggy cafe near the boardwalk of Mexico’s Ciudad del Carmen, a ship company manager unlocks his phone to show a list of 26 firms owed money by the state-owned oil company. The screenshot was followed by a WhatsApp message: “I can help them get paid, in case you know of any who are interested.”
Petroleos Mexicanos is the world’s most indebted oil producer. It owed contractors almost $15 billion at the end of March — a sum that’s more than doubled in four years — and suppliers say Pemex is taking as long as six months to cover the bills, leaving some service providers struggling to stay afloat.
That delay has spawned a shadow industry of people who claim they can speed up payments. In some cases, they’re offering bribes to Pemex employees to make that happen.
Read the full story on Bloomberg here.