Mexico's Pemex to add 30,000 barrels per day capacity

Mexican state oil company Pemex will boost capacity at its biggest refinery, Salinas Cruz, by 9% in a US$4 billion expansion, its head of refining said. The move comes as part of Mexico’s aim to wean itself off supplies of refined product from the United States.
Miguel Tame, director general of Pemex’s refining arm, said that the company was about to begin the overhaul at Salinas Cruz, which would increase production by 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) when completed in three to four years.
Tame said he also expected the on-going expansion of its second-biggest refinery, Tula, to be complete by 2017.
The Salina Cruz refinery is located on the southern coast of Mexico’s Oaxaca state, while Tula is in central Hidalgo state.
Mexico’s gasoline imports will fall steadily in the coming years, and its own output will rise, Tame said, with imports set to fall 8.3% this year to average 320,000 barrels bpd.
“For the month of May, (gasoline) imports will be at their lowest level in many, many months,” said Tame.
In the future, gasoline imports will total about one-fifth of domestic consumption by 2018, down from about half last year.
Meanwhile, Pemex’s production of gasoline and diesel fuel is expected to rise 8.4% to 840,000 bpd by the end of 2013.
Pemex, whose crude oil output has fallen by a quarter since 2004 to less than 2.6 million bpd, is also looking for ways to partner with U.S. refiners to help lower its distribution costs.
He added that he also hopes the government’s overhaul of Pemex will allow it to make strategic partnerships with the private sector in Mexico along the lines of its Deer Park refinery in Texas, which is a 50-50 joint venture with Shell Oil.
“We are looking for schemes that allow us to receive (private) investments from third-parties in various areas of refining that would begin with a broad reform,” said Tame.
“That would make (Mexico’s) industry more flexible and not 100% dependent on investment from the federal government,” he added.
(May 23, 2013)