A fire broke out Thursday afternoon at the Olmeca refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco — the second significant incident at the facility in less than a month — sending a thick column of black smoke visible for kilometers and triggering a large emergency response.
Pemex, Mexico’s state oil company, confirmed the blaze started in a petroleum coke storage warehouse inside the complex. The company activated its internal safety protocols and deployed emergency crews to contain the fire. About 150 Pemex personnel responded, along with support from the Navy, the Defense Ministry, and Tabasco state authorities.
No injuries were reported. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday evening that Pemex director Víctor Rodríguez and refinery manager Julio César Aguilar had confirmed the fire was contained and limited to the coke storage area.
Residents of the nearby town of Paraíso, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the refinery, spotted the smoke first and began posting videos to social media. Footage showed intense flames inside the structure and audible alarms going off across the complex.
Petroleum coke — commonly called petcoke — is a carbon-rich byproduct of the crude oil refining process. It accumulates in large quantities at refineries like Olmeca, which is designed to process Mexico’s heavy Maya crude.
A pattern of incidents
This is the latest in a string of problems at Dos Bocas. On March 17, a far more deadly incident occurred at the refinery’s perimeter when heavy rains caused oily water to overflow beyond the fence line. A vehicle drove through the pooled residue, sparking a fire that killed five workers. Four were employees of a subcontracted security firm; one worked directly for Pemex. The Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into that incident.
In the weeks that followed, Pemex also reported separate oil spills in the area, recovering hundreds of thousands of liters of crude from beaches in Veracruz and Tabasco.
The Olmeca refinery — also known as Dos Bocas, for its location on the Gulf Coast in the municipality of Paraíso — was inaugurated in 2022 and began production in 2024. It is considered a flagship project of Mexico’s push for energy self-sufficiency, designed to reduce the country’s dependence on imported refined fuels from the United States.
Still short of capacity
The refinery was built to process up to 340,000 barrels per day but has yet to hit that target consistently. Its peak throughput of around 320,000 barrels per day was recorded briefly in late December 2025 and early January 2026, when both crude combination units ran simultaneously. As of November 2024, the plant was processing about 206,000 barrels per day — roughly 60% of capacity.
Operational challenges have included problems with the cogeneration system, weather-related disruptions, port logistics issues, and reliability problems in key processing units. Mexico’s overall oil output stood at about 1.635 million barrels per day at the end of 2025, a 7% drop year-over-year and the lowest in decades, according to industry analysts.
Pemex said it will continue to provide updates as crews work to fully extinguish the fire and assess the situation.
At a Glance: Dos Bocas Refinery
- Official name: Refinería Olmeca
- Location: Paraíso, Tabasco, on Mexico’s Gulf Coast
- Inaugurated: 2022; production began 2024
- Designed capacity: 340,000 barrels per day
- Recent peak throughput: ~320,000 barrels per day (late 2025/early 2026)
- April 10 incident: Fire in petroleum coke storage warehouse; no injuries reported
- March 17 incident: Perimeter fire killed 5 workers; federal investigation opened
- Emergency response: ~150 Pemex personnel, Navy, Defense Ministry, Tabasco state authorities
Source: Pemex, La Jornada, El Universal