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EIA: Value of US petroleum exports to

Mexico approached record high in 2019

US-MEXICO US producers exported almost $34bn worth of volumes come from the southern US states of
crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas Texas and Louisiana.)
to Mexico last year, just slightly lower than the This dependence on imported fuels stems
record high registered in 2018, according to partly from rising domestic demand and partly
US Census Bureau data cited by the US Energy from the long-term decline in Mexico’s domestic
Information Administration (EIA). Meanwhile, crude oil output. Production levels hit 1.605mn Petroleum
the same data set shows that the US imported bpd in July, putting the country on track to
$13bn worth of oil, gas and fuels from Mexico record its lowest monthly output figure in nearly imports from
in 2019. half a century.
The gap between these two numbers was con- Both the downward slide in crude produc- Mexico have
sistent with medium-term trends, as the value tion and the reliance on imported fuel have been
of US petroleum exports has been higher than a source of frustration for Mexican President declined over the
imports in every year since 2015, EIA said. This Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. As such, the last five years,
is because petroleum imports from Mexico have president is pushing forward with the Dos Bocas
declined over the last five years, while US exports refinery project, which was designed to improve while US exports
have surged, it explained. domestic petroleum product supplies.
The EIA further stated that energy had Pemex, the national oil company (NOC), have surged.
accounted for 13% of the value of all US exports is currently working to build the Dos Bocas
to Mexico and 4% of all US imports from Mexico refinery project in the southern Mexican
in 2019. It also noted that US oil imports from state of Tabasco. When finished, the plant
Mexico had averaged 599,000 barrels per day will be able to process 340,000 bpd of heavy
(bpd). This makes Mexico the second-biggest crude oil.
foreign supplier of crude to the US market, sec- The project has drawn some criticism, not
ond only to Canada, it said. least because of its $8bn price tag. But Lopez
The US, meanwhile, also plays a key role in Obrador said earlier this year that construc-
Mexican energy markets. For example, it sup- tion would not be postponed or cancelled,
plies more than half of all gasoline consumed even in the face of the coronavirus (COVID-
in Mexico, according to the EIA. (Most of these 19) pandemic.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 12•November•2020