Fuel in Mexico after Harvey

Can't help with gas. And you have probably already seen it, but the travel warnings have been bumped up considerably in the last few weeks.

Crossing with filled cans is a federal law no-no. All the signs in Aduana offices clearly state it, and griping about getting caught has been a travel forum point for years. Shell Pemex Deer Park TX refinery is still operating and that refinery is just East of Houston near the ship channel. No flood there because of drainage canals.

The main pipeline network enters Mexico at Laredo and El Paso. This network connects to USA West Coast refineries in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Anacortes, WA.

So shortages may not be as ominous a threat as they may appear on the surface.

Shell Oil, Chevron, and Exxon annual refinery maintenance turnrounds are not due to appear until late Sept, early October.


UPDATE

Several Texas refineries went off-line today 08/30/2017
Two things to consider. USA gasoline inventories are at an all time high. It may not matter "why" as far as reduced production but because so many refineries across so wide an area chose a particular day to shut down after the storm passed, may be seen as "quite peculiar". Areas surrounding the refineries still have electrical power. Oil companies having been moaning about low pump prices in the USA. I was standing twenty feet away from A.J. Woods, manager (of all) Shell Oil Co. refineries when he said "We're going to fix their ass!" in response to US congress ending of the USA crude oil depletion tax allowance in 1972. Immediately afterward gasoline prices surged and never looked back.

The hated Gasolinaza in Mexico backed down Mexican refinery output over 30%. Even though ramping production back up will stress old process units, if Pemex elects to not increase production it's going to cause a political fury if there is a shortage of fuel down here. Pemex also has the option of purchasing more Japanese refined gasoline

More certain is a sharp spike in USA gasoline prices. Fifty cents a gallon? A dollar per gallon? Have to wait and see.

FOR THE "I WANNA READ IT IN THE NEWSPAPER" crowd. A Cut and Paste
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Mexico News Daily | Wednesday, August 30, 2017

The multinational energy firm Chevron opened its first gas station in Mexico on Sunday in Hermosillo, Sonora, adding to the competition in a formerly monopolized market.

Supplied by state oil company Pemex, Chevron’s fuel is more expensive than that of Pemex stations and up to 60% higher than in the United States.

However, that didn’t deter motorists with long lines of vehicles seen waiting to fill up at the new station on its opening day.

A price comparison by the newspaper El Universal found that Chevron’s prices are slightly above those at Pemex with a liter of premium fuel selling for 17.79 pesos (US $0.99) while a liter of regular fuel costs 15.99 pesos.

The U.S. owned company, which is involved in all stages of oil production, has 22,000 gas stations on six continents including almost 1,500 in Latin America.

Sonora Economy Secretary Jorge Vidal Ahumada said that while Pemex will supply Chevron for its first months of operations, the company will eventually import its own fuel from California.

Before that happens, economist and researcher Luis Huesca Reynoso doesn’t forecast any reduction in prices.

He said the energy reforms that put an end to the state monopoly in the oil sector are moving slowly and have not yet extended to foreign oil production, meaning that for the time being Chevron will have to continue buying fuel from Pemex.

That means the company is subject to an excise tax (IEPS) and value-added tax (IVA) and prevented from selling below the price floor established by Pemex.

Those taxes make gas in Mexico almost six pesos more expensive per liter than in the United States, Huesca said.

The president of Onexpo, a gas station trade organization, agrees that gas prices are unlikely to come down.

Instead, Luis Horacio Muñoz said that the point of difference offered by Chevron is a fuel additive called Techron.

A Chevron official said the company plans to open a new station every week between now and the end of the year in Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California.

Chevron is the latest international company to enter a market that was previously closed to all but Pemex. BP opened its first gas station in the country in March while the 7-Eleven convenience store chain is also establishing itself as a petroleum retailer in Mexico and has ambitious plans to expand.

*My note
Polyurea (nitrogen) TECHRON additive is added at the refinery. Guess who among the "experts" above is delusional. The gas lines remind me of the first McDonalds to open in Tecate BC, 17 years ago. The line extended two hundred yards.

Reports at (guess) work strike again

Ya think maybe, just "maybe" the knowledge the new station "accurate dispensers" would have -anything at all- to do with the long lines? Wotta hoot.

Actually there is a chain of Pemex stations in Hermosillo that ask every customer if they want the pump verified. They have those fancy graduated beakers at the pumps. They pump a few litres into the beaker and you can do a visual. That fuel is poured into your tank. I have checked a few times and the pump dispenses slightly more than the pump reading.

Moisheh

I have no idea what this means but I have posted about it before. There is only one refinery in the state of Colorado and most gasoline stations get their gasoline from that one refinery. To me that would indicate the name on the sign and any station doesn't mean a whole lot since almost all the gasoline comes from the same place. The name on the station has to do with a retail operation and not necessarily oil production or refining. So in Mexico my guess would be there is no way to know where the fuel in the pumps actually came from.

http://refineryreport.org/numill.php?id=1481 ............ Only refinery in Colorado

There are lots of online resources where you can learn about refineries and what they do - U.S. Energy Information Administration would be one - Wikipedia has lists of all refineries in the world.

The whole things a joke. It's labor day weekend gives them a reason.

There are tens of hundreds of reserve tanks filled to the top with gas. The refinery's do not operate on only pumping to fill what is used by the consumer.

So the theory that if a couple of rigs don't pump for a few days the whole country will be out of gas and the need to raise the price is pure baloney. :R

Not to mention how much gas we IMPORT which has nothing to do with a few rigs being shut down in Texas.

Can't believe the public buys into that.

There is a very stringent law in place that 'prohibits' anyone from raising prices, 'gouging' during a disaster.

That should apply to the oil companies also. Cause one could prove it doesn't cost any more because of a few TX rigs being offline.

It gets even better. I know of no San Francisco Bay Area refinery that does not have groups of mobile homes on site (near the administrative offices) to house management employees (and strike breakers). The idea that refineries have to shut down because employees cannot come to work is ludicrous. Refinery management staff do not have homes "down in the bogs".

Oil companies are untouchable, period. Any grief from government, there will be a refinery process "upset" and production is halted. These boys covered their tracks. They even shut down the pipelines. 16" diameter, half inch wall alloy steel pipes resting atop deep (buried) concrete piers.

San Francisco bay area refiners stagger their maintenance turnaround dates to allow refinery production to not altogether cease. Exxon, Shell, and Chevron, plus Valero all have refineries there. They are not "forced" to shutdown at any given date. The autumn turnaround is just around the corner (starts later in September). The average turnaround time is two to three weeks.

Let's see just how conspiratorial the next several weeks are with refineries outside the Texas, area. All Bay Area refineries, have crude oil docks.

As far as Mexico is concerned, only the upper part of the Baja California peninsula is utterly dependent on USA refined fuel.

We have to remember our sacred HIDDEN TAX that we have to pay on just about everything we buy - especially critical life support items like food and fuel.

Commodities Brokers are drooling saliva all over the Houston and Gulf Coast disaster. About 15% of gasoline cost is diverted to these leeches. During a contrived shortage this figure can jump to 50%. Look at the income of commodities brokers. Then remember the old saw: "This mega million dollar gambling casino complex was built with our revenue losses".

I'm not holding my breath. Big Oil loves to reassert their authority. So hang onto your shorts.

Briansue. Although most gasoline is all the same not all refineries produce the "top tier" fuel. When the trucks get fuel from a competing refinery they put in their own additive. But I wonder of that makes a difference. I have read that the Techron mentioned by Mex is a very good product.

Moisheh

rockhillmanor wrote:
The whole things a joke. It's labor day weekend gives them a reason.

There are tens of hundreds of reserve tanks filled to the top with gas. The refinery's do not operate on only pumping to fill what is used by the consumer.

So the theory that if a couple of rigs don't pump for a few days the whole country will be out of gas and the need to raise the price is pure baloney. :R

Not to mention how much gas we IMPORT which has nothing to do with a few rigs being shut down in Texas.

Can't believe the public buys into that.

There is a very stringent law in place that 'prohibits' anyone from raising prices, 'gouging' during a disaster.

That should apply to the oil companies also. Cause one could prove it doesn't cost any more because of a few TX rigs being offline.

The Secretary of Energy is a good ole Texas boy and he's going to take good care of his petroleum friends.