EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The president of Mexico is vowing to take care of within the next 10 days a quality issue bleeding money from crucial crude oil exports to the U.S.
Refineries in Texas and Louisiana for the past few weeks have been balking at taking receipt from Mexican ships of crude oil they deem unfit to make gasoline and diesel, Bloomberg reported last week.
Water content has been measured at around 6%, three times the limit; high salt content also has been found, according to the reports.
The concern comes at a critical time for Mexico, which remains under the threat of 25% tariffs on exports from the United States over immigration and illegal drug issues. Exports of crude and petrochemicals represent a $40 billion a year source of revenue for Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said. International trade publications put the amount of crude exports just from PEMEX at $20 billion.
“It’s incidental and there are ways to fix it. It is not that crude oil absorbs water and salt and goes bad. No,” she said at her Wednesday news conference broadcast on YouTube.
Sheinbaum traced the problem to the Olmeca Refinery, also known as Dos Bocas, in the southeastern state of Tabasco. “Yesterday, they showed me a graphic; they’re about to resolve (the issue) in the next 10 days,” she said.
Victor Rodriguez Padilla, director of the state-owned oil company PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos), acknowledged the concerns raised abroad, but said they could be fixed.
“It’s like selling any other product, right? It must have the required quality (and) lately they have been complaining a little about the (amount) of salt and water,” Rodriguez said. “It started at the end of December. We are taking care of it. The (salt and water) content has decreased a lot. We are very close to the specs.”
Rodriguez denied local news reports that Mexican crude shipments have been denied access to the United States.
“They have not turned back any of our ships. They do complain and then knock off cents off the price (of each oil barrel). It’s always a matter of negotiation, right?” he said. “We continue exporting what we need to export.”
He did not specify the amount of the loss. According to industry publications, a barrel of Maya (export brand) Mexico crude oil was around $58.57 recently.
Rodriguez and Sheinbaum also fielded questions this week about alleged inefficiencies plaguing PEMEX production facilities.
Sheinbaum said she was confident of reaching a production goal of 1.8 million barrels a day, including the 1.3 million barrels needed for domestic consumption.
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