Page 7 - NorthAmOil Week 02 2022

NorthAmOil INVESTMENT NorthAmOil

Pemex may complete

acquisition of Deer

Park refinery next

week

TEXAS MEXICO’S national oil company (NOC) Pemex
is slated to complete its acquisition of the Deer
Park refinery in Texas from an affiliate of Royal
Dutch Shell within a week, according to a report
from Reuters.
Three sources with knowledge of the matter
told Reuters earlier this week that Pemex would
take control of Shell’s 50.01% stake in the plant
on January 20. Since the Mexican company
already has 49.99% of the facility, the transac-
tion will bring its holdings up to 100%.
According to one of Reuters’ sources, Pemex’s
CEO Octavio Romero Oropeza is expected to
travel to Texas next week to finalise the deal,
which has been valued at nearly $600mn.
Meanwhile, another source said that the NOC
had resolved all outstanding questions related Source: AP
to the plant’s workforce. The parties have struck in a statement it was pleased that the court had
an agreement that will allow current employees recognised that no legal impediments to the
to continue working at the refinery, even though planned sale to Pemex existed. As of press time,
they will no longer be employed by Shell, he said. though, neither Pemex nor the plaintiffs had
A third source, for his part, told the news commented publicly on the matter. According
agency that Pemex and Shell were still working to a court docket cited by Argus Media, Hagele
to wrap up a few final matters and had acceler- and Sarcinella have said they intend to pursue
ated the pace of discussions in the hope of com- the matter further in court.
pleting the deal by February 1. Pemex struck a deal with Shell on the acquisi-
As of press time, Pemex had not commented tion of the remaining 50.01% of equity last year.
The deal is on the matter. It had hoped to conclude the transaction by the
end of last November but had to delay that mile-
anticipated to Legal developments stone while waiting for the Committee on For-
impose a certain The Reuters report came shortly after a US fed- eign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
eral court rejected a request to block Pemex from
The committee appears to have green-lighted
amount of strain acquiring Shell’s stake in the Deer Park refinery. the sale on or around December 21, and the
Two US businessmen – Aaron Hagele and parties have now completed about 90% of the
on Pemex. Andrew Sarcinella, the owners of a coin-oper- work needed to wrap up the deal, Argus Media
ated laundromat in Mount Vernon, New York reported last week. They hope to close the dis-
– had filed suit in the US District Court for the tance by the end of this month to avoid financial
Southern District of Texas in a bid to prevent the and labour-related difficulties.
sale, arguing that the transaction would cause The deal is anticipated to impose a certain
indirect harm to their business. In their initial amount of strain on Pemex. The Mexican NOC
petition, which was filed last month, they said has reported the purchase price of the stake at
Pemex’s plan to send gasoline, diesel and other $596mn, but Bloomberg has viewed documents
petroleum products turned out by the Deer Park showing that the total cost may reach about
refinery to Mexico would cause US fuel prices to $1.6bn. Those documents show that the NOC
rise, thereby inflicting “incalculable but evident” will use around $1.6bn, including capitalisation
damage on the people who use the laundromat. from Mexico’s National Infrastructure Fund and
Judge Lee Rosenthal responded to their filing a bridge loan from commercial banking institu-
by denying their requests for expedited discov- tions, to buy the stake and settle more than $1bn
ery and a temporary restraining order. of the Deer Park plant’s debts, the news agency
Shell responded to the judge’s ruling by saying has said.™

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