Antonio Gozain, Argus Media

MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 09 07 2023

Mexican state-owned Pemex’s new 340,000 b/d Olmeca refinery produced its inaugural straight-run primary gasoline from Maya crude this past weekend, ahead of the refinery’s long-delayed start of commercial operations

Olmeca refinery’s first output came around two months after the refinery began loading crude for processing on 29 June.

Energy minister Rocio Nahle described the production as primary gasoline without providing more details about its quality.

The refinery will be producing 290,000 b/d of gasoline by the end of the year, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week during the presentation of his fifth annual report.

But the figure provided by Lopez Obrador is far from reality, according to market sources, who say an optimistic estimate of Olmeca’s output would be around 100,000 b/d of gasoline and 90,000 b/d of diesel by the end of the year.

The Olmeca refinery, the government’s flagship project at the port of Dos Bocas in the southeastern state of Tabasco, has been defined as a key piece of the government’s ambitious plan to cut gasoline and diesel imports.

The new refinery will join the national refining system of six current refineries, which have a combined capacity to process 1.64mn b/d of crude but operate at less than 50pc capacity since 2016.

Before the Olmeca refinery, the last new one built in Mexico was the 330,000 b/d Salina Cruz refinery, which started operations in 1979.

argusmedia.com 09 06 1023