Mexican state oil company Pemex expects to steadily increase liquids production, mostly crude oil, over the next few years to reach 2.296 million barrels per day (bbl/d) by the end of 2024, its CEO said Oct. 14.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist energy nationalist, has made raising oil output and domestic refining the top priorities of his six-year term, which ends in 2024.

In a presentation to a congressional committee, Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said he sees output hitting 1.94 MMbbl/d by the end of this year as new developments contribute more barrels.

“The expectation is to continue growing,” he said.

Romero downplayed the contributions of new private producers—who were allowed to operate fields on their own for the first time thanks to a 2013 energy reform that ended Pemex’s monopoly—as significantly inferior. He did not note that most such projects remain in early, exploratory stages.

He said private output is expected to reach just 70,000 bbl/d by the end of 2020, and some 280,000 bbl/d by 2024.

Lopez Obrador favors a state-centric oil industry and has canceled competitive oil auctions that would have allowed private firms to bid on new projects.

Romero, a longtime confidant of the president, said Pemex’s domestic refineries will process 1.1 MMbbl/d of crude by the end of this year, up 10% compared to last year.

He sought to draw attention to the tax contributions the state-run company has contributed to government coffers in the first eight months of this year, around 438 billion pesos ($20.5 billion) or more than 11% of federal government spending.

Pemex shoulders more than $100 billion in financial debt, more than any other oil company, and has seen its oil output decline for 15 years.