Permit renewed as fuel flows resume amid Mexico’s anti-smuggling crackdown

Eunice Bridges and Antonio Gozain, Argus Media

HOUSTON/MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 04 25 2025

Independent US refiner Valero said its permit to import fuel into Mexico has been reinstated after being suspended earlier this month.

The temporary suspension was imposed by Mexico’s tax authority SAT on 9 April as part of the country’s efforts to fight fuel smuggling, Valero said. The suspension was lifted after the company reached out to stakeholders and customs officials in Mexico and was “quickly exonerated of any wrongdoing,” Valero said Thursday morning during its first quarter earnings call.

Valero on 23 April sent a notice to customers in Mexico saying its import operations had resumed, but the two-week stop disrupted supply in several regions. Some cities, like Irapuato in Guanajuato state northwest of Mexico City, remain without product, according to market sources.

“Although this is all unfortunate and created significant supply disruption for our customers, it is part of an effort in Mexico to limit the import of illegal fuel,” Valero chief financial officer Gary Simmons said in the earnings call.

Fuel smuggling is rampant in Mexico, with illicit fuel sales accounting for up to 30pc of Mexico’s 1.2mn b/d of gasoline and diesel demand, according to finance ministry estimates. Most of the illicit supply enters Mexico through mislabeling oil products at the US-Mexico border as petrochemicals, additives or biofuels, which are not subject to excise taxes on diesel and regular gasoline.

Earlier this month Mexico stopped the movement of all fuel trucks as part of fight against fuel smuggling.

Valero top importer to Mexico

Valero is the largest private fuel importer in Mexico, operating an extensive distribution network supported by its refineries in the US Gulf coast and a system of terminals, pipelines, rail routes, truck routes and waterborne logistics. Its fuel sales accounted for 10pc of Mexico’s gasoline and diesel demand on 9 April, according to the company.

The company imports road fuels by pipeline from its Corpus Christi and Three Rivers refineries in Texas to the 195,000 bl NuStar storage terminal in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Valero’s waterborne fuel deliveries arrive at the 2.1mn bl Sempra terminal in Veracruz, from which it supplies other terminals near Puebla, Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Valero stores fuel at four private-sector terminals in Mexico, with over 4mn bl of capacity. The company is also expected to start storing fuel at the new 1.1mn bl OTM maritine terminal in Altamira, Tamaulipas, in the near future.

The company operates a network of over 290 retail fuel stations in Mexico and also supplies fuel to other retailers and fuel marketers.

In Mexico Valero holds gasoline, diesel and jet fuel import permits valid through 2038. Valero is one of only a handful of private-sector companies with such permits, as Shell, Marathon and ExxonMobil hold permits to import only gasoline and diesel.

Private-sector companies started importing fuel into Mexico in 2016 after the market opened to more competition, but under former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration, the energy ministry (Sener) cancelled dozens of fuel import permits.

argusmedia.com 04 24 2025