Mexico's incoming president named academic Victor Rodriguez as the next chief executive of the debt-laden oil company Pemex on Monday, marking one of the final senior appointments for the nation’s financially unstable and politically sensitive energy sector.

During a press conference, Rodriguez highlighted the importance of collaboration with the finance ministry to stabilise the state-owned company and stressed the need to focus on producing cleaner fuels.

“We need to maintain the basis of energy needs and that is oil and gas, while we move forward with the energy transition. We are going to make a gargantuan effort in developing renewable energy sources,” he stated.

President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, set to assume office in October, has nearly completed her cabinet appointments, blending new faces with veterans from the current administration of her leftist mentor.

Among these is Victor Rodriguez, a physicist and energy economics expert with close ties to Sheinbaum, despite having no prior experience in the oil industry.

In 2009, Rodriguez co-authored a paper with Sheinbaum on Mexican energy policies and development, highlighting the widening gap between the country’s energy strategies and sustainability goals, Reuters news agency reports.

It is not unusual for Mexican presidents to choose close allies rather than oil and gas industry veterans to lead Pemex, the country's largest company and a significant contributor to state revenues for decades.

Similar to her predecessor, Sheinbaum has advocated for increasing Pemex's role in oil and gas production while largely excluding other companies. However, unlike López Obrador, she has shown a stronger interest in green energy projects, predicting they will be a “signature” of her administration.

The new Pemex executive will be tasked with addressing a persistent decline in crude oil production, which has fallen by over 50% from a peak of 3.4 million barrels per day two decades ago.

Pemex is among the world's most heavily indebted oil companies, with its financial debt alone nearing $100 billion.