May 21, 2018 [My San Antonio] - San Antonio-based refiner Valero Energy Corp. has signed a new deal to export fuel to northern Mexico from two of its Gulf Coast refineries.
The refiner, currently the largest in the U.S., will export gasoline and diesel to northern Mexico using a recently announced expansion by San Antonio-based NuStar Energy LP. Valero expects to begin shipping the fuels into northern Mexico by the end of 2018, and did not provide the amount it expects to send.
NuStar, which operates crude oil and refined product pipelines and storage terminals, announced in April that it will be expanding its South Texas pipeline system and the terminal it operates in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
Valero and other U.S. refiners have been making a push into Mexico and other countries. After almost 80 years of state control, Mexico started opening its energy market to competition in 2014. The sweeping energy reform is intended to boost oil and gas production and fuel electricity generation, and the overhaul includes everything from oil fields to pipelines, storage terminals and retail gas stations.
Valero also signed a deal in August with IEnova, a subsidiary of San Diego, California-based Sempra Energy, to utilize a new $155 million, 1.4 million barrel refined product storage facility in the Gulf of Mexico port of Veracruz.
IEnova will build another pair of terminals for $120 million that will allow product imports by rail to the Mexico City market.
U.S. exports of gasoline into Mexico increased fivefold between 2007 and 2017, when a record 153.5 million barrels of gasoline were exported to Mexico, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Exports of distillates — which can be either diesel or fuel oil — have increased sevenfold in the last decade to a record 91.3 million barrels in 2017. The export numbers have fluctuated widely from year to year.
On Monday, Valero announced it had purchased Pure Biofuels del Peru S.A.C. from Pegasus Capital Advisors, which it said is the third largest fuels importer into Peru.
The purchase included two Peruvian fuels terminals in Callao and Paita, and Valero’s President and CEO Joe Gorder said the purchase “demonstrates our continued interest in expanding international product exports and wholesale fuels volumes.”
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