Latin America: top national oil companies 2020, by revenue

Brazilian Petrobras, short for Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., was the leading state-owned oil corporation in Latin America in 2020, with a net revenue of more than 53 billion U.S. dollars. Petróleos Mexicanos – most commonly known as Pemex – ranked second, with a sales revenue amounting to approximately 44.7 billion dollars.

Similar origins, different paths

Nationalism has been a foundational element in the two leading state-owned oil corporations' early development, which were granted exclusive rights in the exploration of crude oil resources in their respective countries. While the monopoly of Petrobras legally ended in 1997, Pemex’s endured until as recent as the mid-2010s. Nevertheless, the companies’ performances have taken very different paths. Since the discovery of deep offshore reserves, Petrobras’ crude oil production has soared in the past decade, averaging around 2.1 million barrels per day in recent years. Meanwhile, Pemex has been facing a production crisis – its crude oil production dropped by nearly 35 percent between 2010 and 2020, dipping below 1.7 million barrels per day.

The oil sector takes a hit

With crude oil prices plummeting worldwide amidst the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the earnings of oil corporations across the globe suffered a massive hit. Petrobras' revenue dropped by nearly 30 percent in 2020, despite managing to increase its oil production that year. The revenues of Pemex and Ecopetrol were similarly impacted. Still, as some of the largest global players in the oil sector – including Shell and ExxonMobil – recorded historic net losses, Petrobras stood out as the world's most profitable oil company in 2020.