Mexico's financial intelligence unit, the UIF, has signed a cooperation agreement with Pemex under which the two institutions will exchange intelligence and financial data to combat hydrocarbon theft, corruption, and fraud.

Under the deal, Pemex will hand over financial, economic, accounting, legal, and administrative information to help the UIF identify and prevent operations linked to illicit proceeds. In return, the UIF will supply intelligence products aimed at identifying, monitoring, and evaluating risks tied to Pemex's financial activities and those of its subsidiaries.

The agreement extends work already under way inside the Interinstitutional Working Group against the Illegal Fuel Market, a body that coordinates financial and operational intelligence to detect networks involved in fuel theft and illegal hydrocarbon sales. The read here is that formalising the exchange - binding Pemex to share internal financial records - raises the institutional pressure on the company to act on what the UIF finds, rather than treat intelligence as advisory.