Falling Mexican fuel production adds to ongoing shortages
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Key Mexican oil refineries are shut down, Mexico’s president said, as the government’s drive to stamp out gasoline theft from pipelines is pressuring the distribution of supplies from terminals across the country.
Declining output at refineries owned and operated by state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, is forcing the firm to meet demand by relying more heavily on imported motor fuels, which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pledged to cut once more gasoline and diesel can be produced at home.
“There are (Pemex) refineries that have been shut down for a while,” said Lopez Obrador at his morning news conference.
The company’s 177,000 barrel per day (
Pemex owns and operates six oil refineries in Mexico with a joint capacity of 1.63 million
Leftist Lopez Obrador, who won a landslide election on promises to boost domestic refining capacity while avoiding gasoline price spikes, emphasized that the country has enough fuel supplies and that only distribution problems persist.
Pemex’s largest refinery, the 330,000-
The refinery, located on the coast of southern Oaxaca state, was producing about 52,000 barrels per day (
Overall, Pemex’s refineries are producing about 200,000
“We have enough (gasoline) reserves, ships are arriving, we have enough fuel, that’s why we’re meeting this challenge,” said Lopez Obrador.
Still, long lines of drivers are forming at gas stations in the Mexican capital, as well as in several states, since earlier this week as the government crackdown on fuel theft has led to slower fuel distribution, primarily by rail and trucks.
Meanwhile, at key Mexican import hubs, bottlenecks for discharging imported fuel have formed where more than 7 million barrels of fuel languish, according to traders and Refinitiv Eikon data.
Additional reporting by David Alire Garcia and Veronica Gomez; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot
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