Mexico’s Pemex has begun selling heavy Maya crude for the first time since 2008 to US West Coast refiners. Pemex will also market more light Isthmus crude this year to the US West Coast, most, if not all destined for California. The company plans to ship an average of 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Maya crude and 50,000 bpd of Isthmus crude over the course of 2017.
Pemex will export the crude from a recently remodeled terminal adjacent to its Salina Cruz refinery on the Pacific coast, lessening dependence on its export hubs clustered in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico’s imports of refined products from US suppliers hit a record in 2016 amid very low refining rates in Mexico’s six domestic refineries, which has prompted some analysts to forecast more growth in gasoline and diesel purchases in 2017.