Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 28 2020

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US oil imports from Mexico surge to eight-year high
THE volume of crude oil imported from Mexico into the US jumped to its highest level in more than eight years in early June.
In the week ending July 3, US purchases rose to around 1.3mn barrels per day (bpd). Accord- ing to the US Energy Information Administra- tion (EIA), this is the highest gure posted since February 2012. It also brought US net imports in the same week to their highest level since August 2019, EIA data showed.
Information collected by the vessel-track- ing rm ClipperData showed that the Mexican supplies were delivered to 10 terminals. More than half of the total ended up at the Deer Park re nery owned by Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Neth- erlands) and the Port Arthur plant owned by Valero Energy (US).
e other destination included Gulf Coast re neries owned by Marathon Petroleum (US) and Valero, as well as a refinery in Houston owned by LyondellBasell Industries (Nether- lands), market sources told Reuters.
e surge in delivery volumes came a er a re hit Mexico’s largest re nery in Salina Cruz late last month. e blaze led Mexico’s national oil company (NOC) Pemex to offload more barrels rather than reserve them for process- ing. Pemex also opted not to put extra oil into storage, as its inventories have swelled since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began cut- ting into demand.
Mexico has held o making deep production cuts in spite of the chaos unleashed on global markets by the pandemic. It is currently pro- ducing nearly 1.8mn bpd of oil but has not so far
indicated any plans to curb output.
Instead, Mexican President Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador has said that the country is intending to increase domestic re ning capac- ity by continuing to construct a new re nery while also upgrading existing facilities. In April, he declared that work on the $8bn Dos Bocas refinery project would not be postponed or cancelled. The plant, which is already under construction in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco, will be able to process 340,000 bpd of heavy crude oil.
e government is hoping that this ambi- tious project will end Mexico’s dependence on imported re ned products, most of which come from the southern US states of Texas and Loui- siana. In January, the Bank of China (BoC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) pledged to provide $600mn in funding for the re nery.™
With stocks full, Pemex does not have the option of storing oil (Photo: Grupo Cobra)
Pemex, US-led consortium ordered to unitise Zama oilfield
MEXICO’S state oil company Pemex and a US-led private consortium have been told they must establish a joint development plan for the Zama oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.
Last week, Mexico’s Energy Ministry (SENER) instructed Pemex and the consor- tium, which is led by US-based Talos Energy, to draw up a detailed plan and unitise the eld. It did so following a determination that Zama
extends into a neighbouring block belonging to the Mexican state major, according to Reuters.
The plan has to include details on which company will operate the joint development project and also share preliminary information on division of the shared reservoir, the ministry said. It also instructed the companies to present a unitisation agreement detailing their joint development plan within 120 working days.
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