Three company officials have lost their jobs for failing to report the leak which began in February and washed up on shores in March, Pemex's director Victor Rodriguez told reporters.

Just last month, the Mexican government blamed "illegal discharge" from a ship and natural hydrocarbon seepage for the spill, dismissing suggestions that Pemex was responsible.

But a group of scientists, convened by President Claudia Sheinbaum, later found "evidence that there was indeed a hydrocarbon spill in the vicinity" of a Pemex platform, Science Secretary Rosaura Ruiz told reporters Thursday.

Oil slicks washed up along some 370 miles (600 kilometers) of beaches across three different states, but researchers are still calculating the "exact volume" of the spill, Ruiz said.

Pemex head Rodriguez said he requested satellite images and logbooks from company officials following the scientific group's conclusion.

"Since there was resistance, I requested the information in writing," he said, and discovered several "irregularities", including "a loss of mechanical integrity and the repair of an old pipeline" that had not been reported.

The leak was repeatedly denied by different departments, and was not stopped until eight days after it was detected, Rodriguez said.

Greenpeace reported last August that Pemex was tied to 1,146 oil spills between 2008 and 2024, slamming the latest incident as an environmental disaster.