Olmeca refinery’s production of viable fuels remains marginal. Infrastructure challenges hinder Olmeca’s domestic fuel distribution.

Stefanie Eschenbacher and Marianna Parraga

MEXICO CITY/HOUSTON
EnergiesNet.com 04 24 2025

 Mexico exported the first cargo of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) reprocessed in its new Olmeca refinery in early April, according to tanker tracking data and a source, as infrastructure to transport the much-needed motor fuel across the country is not ready.

The Olmeca refinery has received unfinished high-sulfur diesel from the Madero refinery in Tamaulipas to turn it into ULSD, a source familiar with the operations said, although its own production of viable fuels remains marginal.

Mexico is a prominent crude oil producer, but it imports hundreds of thousands of barrels of fuel every day because state energy company Pemex struggles to efficiently turn the heavy crude grades it mostly pumps into finished fuels.

Olmeca, Pemex’ seventh refinery in Mexico, with a capacity to process 340,000 barrels per day of oil, was aimed at helping to make the country energy self-sufficient.

Denmark-flagged tanker Torm Singapore finished loading about 300,000 barrels of ULSD in early April on a single-buoy mooring off the Dos Bocas port, LSEG tracking data showed.

The vessel discharged a first parcel days later at Port Canaveral in Florida, and a second parcel at the port of Yabucoa in Puerto Rico.

The cargo marked Mexico’s first shipment of ULSD from Dos Bocas, according to the LSEG data, compiled since early 2024.

A second tanker, the Italy-flagged Valleblu, late last week also loaded ULSD at Dos Bocas, but has not departed, according to the data. Reuters was unable to determine whether Pemex would export more from the Olmeca refinery following the two cargoes.

PMI Comercio Internacional, the commercial arm of Pemex, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

So far, the Olmeca refinery has produced unfinished fuels and byproducts includingpetroleum coke, which is common for refineries in a start-up phase. Its first export went to India in September, Reuters revealed last year.

The diesel was exported as the refinery still lacks enough pipelines or rail routes to transport large volumes domestically, one source said, adding that there were not enough fuel trucks to distribute it in the rest of the country either.

One of the main disadvantages of building the refinery in Dos Bocas was the lack of infrastructure to distribute it across the country, a document shared with Reuters showed, highlighting that it would be costly and time-consuming to build it.

Pemex frequently distributes small volumes of diesel from the Olmeca refinery by fuel trucks, the source said. To transport a volume equivalent to the cargo exported, it would have needed at least 1,300 trucks.

In July 2022, former Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a resource nationalist, inaugurated a portion of the refinery’s infrastructure in his home state Tabasco, billing it as crucial to energy self-sufficiency for the country.

However, delays to complete the refinery, whose cost has more than doubled to $16.8 billion, mean it will be up to his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum, to complete the plan.

Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher in Mexico City and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Adriana Barrera in Mexico City; Editing by Mark Porter.

reuters.com 04 23 2025