Second Fire in Two Months at AMLO's Dos Bocas Olmeca Refinery

A second fire broke out at the Dos Bocas Olmeca Refinery in Paraíso, Tabasco — AMLO's flagship $20+ billion megaproject — in early May 2026, less than four weeks after the deadly April 9 coke warehouse fire. The May incident ignited in a vacuum residue storage tank during scheduled maintenance operations. Pemex crews extinguished the blaze with no injuries reported, and operations resumed normally. The recurring safety incidents continued to fuel opposition criticism of AMLO's decision to build Mexico's first new refinery since the 1970s on a mangrove swamp in Tabasco. As of May 2026, the refinery operates at approximately 181,000–207,000 bbl/day — roughly 54–61% of its 340,000 bbl/day nameplate capacity — down from a brief 320,000 bbl/day peak in December 2025–January 2026.