March 23, 2018 [S&P Global] - Mexico state oil company Pemex awarded its second refined products logistics capacity open season to its downstream subsidiary, Pemex TRI, citing a lack of offers from independent companies.
Pemex awarded the capacity March 14, but did not announce the results until Tuesday night. Pemex offered 61,100 barrels of gasoline and diesel storage across the states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas, which is 19.4% of the total operative capacity available in the Frontera region.
These terminals are located in the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Sabinas, and Monclova. Also, Pemex offered 4,750 b/d of capacity on its Monclova-Sabinas pipeline.
Gonzalo Monroy, managing director of GMEC, a Mexico City-based energy consultancy, said the results send a clear message to Pemex that it needs to improve the conditions of its logistics auctions.
He said the volume offered and the tariffs requested were not attractive considering the terminals auctioned are depreciated and have been operating close to 20 years.
“It was also a situation of arbitrage as it could have been more economical to acquire capacity in Texas and truck product to Mexican cities near the border,” Monroy added.
Competition from Howard Energy Partner’s Dos Aguilas project could have been an influencing factor in the process, he added.
The project will ship fuel from Corpus Christi, Texas to Monterrey via a 90,000 b/d fuel pipeline. The project also has a combined storage capacity of 1.2 million barrels across Corpus Christi, Laredo, Nuevo Laredo, and Monterrey.
Pemex will hold its next logistics auction on April 20, when it plans to award 46,800 barrels of gasoline and diesel storage capacity across several terminals in the Northwestern states of Sinaloa, Baja California Sur and Nayarit.
The capacity to be offered is less than 4% of the total capacity in the Topolobampo system.
Pemex plans to award on May 21 capacity in the Madero zone in the northern region of the country, offering 41,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel storage capacity in the states of San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas.
Pemex will offer capacity across its terminals at Matehuala, Ciudad Vitoria, Ciudad Mante, and Ciudad Valle. Pemex will offer 17.2% of the total operative capacity across these terminals.
Pemex’s logistics auctions are part of Mexico’s plan to liberalize the country’s fuel market.
San Antonio-based refiner Andeavor last year was awarded 320,000 barrels of combined gasoline and diesel storage capacity as well as 9,535 b/d of combined pipeline capacity in Mexico’s Northwest in Pemex’s first phase of its logistic open season.
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