Pemex will keep oil exports close to 1 MMbpd through much of 2022, according to people familiar with the matter, despite plans to slash them to refine more crude domestically.

In late December Pemex said it would more than halve exports of crude to 435,000 bpd this year and reduce them to nil in 2023 as part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's self-sufficiency drive to end imports of gasoline.

The 2022 target rested on Pemex more than doubling refining output to over 1.5 MMbpd from about 714,000 bpd last year.

But that target is unlikely to be met, the sources said.

Lopez Obrador himself said this week that he was holding talks with the heads of Mexico's refineries as the price of crude oil has surged to its highest levels since 2008 on market tensions stemming from the war in Ukraine.

"We're defining a strategy on the basis that the price of crude is rising, and we're revamping refineries," Lopez Obrador said, without giving details of revised targets.

The president's office did not reply to a request for comment on whether the government now planned to export more crude than Pemex had projected in December. Neither Pemex nor the energy ministry replied to requests for comment.

The sources said exports will now be higher than Pemex forecast, due to surging oil prices and slow progress in boosting refining capacity. The federal budget predicts the company should produce over 1.8 MMbpd of crude this year.

"Last year's export levels will be maintained," a Pemex source with knowledge of planning told Reuters, putting it at between 1 MM and 1.1 MMbpd. Crude exports from Mexico were just over 1 MMbpd in 2021, according to Pemex.

Crude exports fell to 832,000 bpd in January, the lowest level in decades, which the source said was due to poor weather in the Gulf of Mexico. Preliminary data for February showed exports climbing to almost 950,000 bpd, the source added.

Shortfalls in processing capacity mean that more unrefined crude is sold abroad, the source noted.

The Finance Ministry did not reply to a request for comment on the differences between the various export estimates.

Mexican refining output averaged some 712,00 bpd last year, and though it reached almost 800,000 bpd in January, a level it should stay close to through July, the source added.

Pemex said in February that processing would average 900,000 bpd this year, rising in the second half of 2022.

A second official source put crude exports at just under 1 MMbpd in 2022, in line with federal budget forecasts. Exports could be above 1 MM if two refineries are halted for repairs to improve their performance, the source added.