Mexico’s state oil company Pemex has requested its trading unit to cancel up to 436,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude exports this month as the company gets ready to begin processing domestic oil at the new Olmeca refinery, according to an internal document seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The government has said it will begin processing crude at the Dos Bocas refinery this year, part of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s long standing goal of weaning the country off its dependence on foreign gasoline and diesel supplies.
Pemex said last month that its crude oil production in February fell to its lowest level in 45 years, curtailing available supplies.
“There is not enough crude, they either refine it or export it. There is not enough crude for both,” a person familiar with the matter said.
The cancellations will reduce exports of Mexico’s flagship Maya crude by 122,000 bpd, Isthmus by 247,000 bpd and Olmeca by 67,000 bpd, according to the document. Term contract customers in Europe, the United States and Asia will be hit, two people said.
It was not immediately clear if more cargo cancellations will occur after April, but one of the people said availability of Maya crude has been dwindling and was unlikely to be resolved soon.
(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher, Editing by Marianna Parraga)