Pemex Unit Fined $22 Mln by Competition Authority

Mexico's competition authority said on Tuesday that it has fined a unit of state-owned oil company Pemex for presenting an annual compliance report on antimonopoly measures in the recently opened fuel market a year after it was due.

The Federal Commission for Economic Competition, or COFECE, fined Pemex's Industrial Transformation unit, responsible for a range of refining and logistical activities, 418.31 million pesos ($22.1 million) for the late report.

COFECE said the report, one of the measures the Pemex unit committed to in 2016 to end an investigation into monopolistic practices in the sale and distribution of diesel and other fuels was presented a year late.

"By delaying the presentation of the aforementioned audit, Pemex's TRI (Industrial Transformation unit) disregarded a necessary and fundamental element for COFECE to verify compliance with the obligations acquired," the authority said in a statement.

COFECE said Pemex could ask a judge to review the decision. Pemex did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last year, COFECE fined Pemex's Industrial Transformation unit nearly 369 million pesos for the "possible commission of a monopolistic practice... in the diesel market."

At the time, Pemex said it would challenge the fine.

($1 = 18.8900 Mexican pesos)

(Reporting by Adriana Barrera; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Sandra Maler)