Lopez Obrador moves ahead on refinery overhaul, threatening U.S. gasoline exports
Source: Houston Chronicle
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James Osborne Sep. 20, 2018 Updated: Sep. 20, 2018 7:26 p.m.
WASHINGTON - Mexican President-elect Manuel Lopez Obrador’s campaign promises to overhaul the country’s declining refining sector and reduce reliance on U.S. energy exports were widely dismissed within U.S. energy and political circles as mere political rhetoric.
But two months after his election victory, his advisers are signaling they fully intend to go ahead with that plan, threatening a refining industry along the Texas Gulf Coast that has become increasingly reliant on Mexican gasoline demand. During a recent visit to Mexico City to discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said he was struck by how forcefully Lopez Obrador’s advisers discussed building the first new refinery in Mexico in decades and rehabbing the country’s existing facilities.
“They’re serious about it,” Cuellar said. “They do want to gradually stop the importation of gasoline.”
That, of course, would have big implications for Texas Gulf Coast refiners, which account for nearly one-third of the nation’s refining capacity, but increasingly look to foreign markets for growth as U.S. gasoline demand in the United States has flattened with the spread of fuel-efficient vehicles. Over the past decade, the flow of American gasoline to Mexico has almost quadrupled to more than 420,000 barrels a day and accounts for more than half of all U.S. gasoline exports, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Read more: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Obrador-moves-ahead-on-refinery-overhaul-13243719.php
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... how will Mexico get any gasoline?
