Mexico’s President Claims Its Oil Quality Problem Has Been Solved

Problems with the salt content in Pemex oil have been solved, the country’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said, after multiple reports about trouble with salt and water content in Pemex crude.

“The problem of salt in crude has been solved,” Sheinbaum said during a regular press conference, as quoted by Reuters. The president added that the new Pemex refinery in Dos Bokas was making progress, too.

In February, reports emerged that Gulf Coast refiners were shunning Mexican crude because of excessive water content. Instead, refiners were buying more Colombian and Canadian crude, or asking for discounts on the Pemex cargos, unnamed industry sources told the publication at the time. According to them, Mexico’s flagship Maya crude had a water content of as much as 6%, which is six times higher than the industry standard.

Pemex chief executive Victor Rodriguez acknowledged the problem, saying complaints have been made by buyers, citing high water content and also high salt content in the crude. “We don’t have problems in Pemex or with oil production, these are situations that occur and have occurred historically,” Rodriguez told Reuters. Mexican crude imports into the U.S. in January fell to the lowest in 35 years, at 321,000 barrels daily.

According to Rodriguez, some platforms operated by Pemex have been extracting oil with higher salt and water content.

Separately, the Mexican state energy company has been looking for alternative buyers for its crude because of the U.S. tariffs. According to a Reuters report from earlier this week, Pemex was in talks with potential clients in Asia and Europe. Historically, the United States is Mexico’s biggest oil client.

“The good thing is that there’s appetite for Mexican crude in Europe, in India, in Asia,” a Mexican government official told Reuters, adding “There’s demand for heavy crude and Pemex crude.”

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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