MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says an additional 400,000 barrels of oil a day will be used for domestic gasoline production, amid falling oil prices.

Speaking in a Sunday address broadcast on Twitter, Mexico’s leader said that now that crude oil prices had fallen, gasoline production in the country was going to increase and for that purpose, the government was planning to allocate an additional 400,000 barrels per day "so as not to waste all the exported oil" and to reduce fuel purchases abroad.

Informe del presidente de la República al pueblo de México. https://t.co/OdkoHGq6Vy — Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) April 5, 2020

In December 2019, Mexico’s oil exports amounted to 1.2 million barrels a day, so the amount that the government plans to use for domestic gasoline production is about a third of Mexico’s export.

Last month, Obrador said the Mexican government was optimistic about the consequences of the OPEC+ countries' failure to agree on deeper oil production cuts and expected oil prices and the national currency rate to recover.

On 6 March, OPEC+ countries were unable to agree on an extension of a deal to limit oil production. Restrictions were lifted as the previous deal expired at the end of March, leading to a collapse in the market, in conjunction with a global drop in demand due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

OPEC+ countries are set to meet this week to discuss the potential of reviving an oil output cut deal that expired on 31 March.