One of Mexico's largest refineries, with a processing capacity of 340,000 barrels per day, appears to have suffered a fire in its coke storage area, marking the second incident in less than a month.

The Dos Bocas refinery, built by Pemex in the southeastern state of Tabasco, is the crown jewel of Mexico's push to reduce dependence on imported gasoline and diesel, especially from U.S. exporters in the Gulf of America. It cost about $21 billion to build and was a major energy project under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Reuters reports that a fire broke out in the refinery's coke storage area on Thursday afternoon. This area is where petroleum coke, a solid, carbon-rich byproduct of refining heavy crude oil, is stored. Petcoke is highly combustible, especially when fine dust accumulates.

By late Thursday, President Claudia Sheinbaum stated on X that the fire was under control and limited to the coke storage area. 

"The director of Pemex and the manager of the Olmeca refinery have informed me the fire is confined solely to a coke storage area and is under control," said President Claudia Sheinbaum.

In January, the refinery processed 205,000 bpd of crude oil, 77,520 bpd of gasoline, and 78,500 bpd of diesel, according to Reuters data. Its maximum processing capacity is 340,000 bpd. 

The latest incident comes after a March 17 fire near the refinery perimeter that killed five people. Dos Bocas has faced repeated issues since starting operations in 2024 and has fallen short of its processing targets.

The good news is that the refinery's processing capacity was not affected amid the Gulf energy shock and the disruption of energy infrastructure across conflict-affected areas of Eurasia. 

The López Obrador administration has described the refinery as "energy sovereignty."