MOSCOW (MRC) -- Before Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) surprised the oil industry last week with plans to take full control of a refinery in Texas, an internal assessment by the Mexican state oil company had concluded it lacked expertise in the refining business, reported Reuters.
Pemex's domestic refining operations have long racked up losses, and the 2019 internal assessment seen by Reuters found the state oil group had failed to take advantage of its nearly three-decade partnership with Royal Dutch Shell in the profitable Deer Park refinery in Texas.
Knowledge that could have been useful to Mexico's six domestic refineries had not been effectively transferred from Deer Park, the report found.
Absorbing that technology and expertise now, analysts say, holds the key to the success of Pemex's USD596 million deal last week to acquire Shell's Deer Park stake. "Owning the steel does not give the advantage, it's the skill that comes with it," said George Baker, a Houston-based consultant and publisher of Mexico Energy Intelligence.
Pemex did not reply to requests for comment and the company has not detailed what new expertise it will receive from the deal, nor how it would be used. Still, a Pemex source said Deer Park would be a benchmark of efficiency and good practices for its Mexican refineries.
As MRC informed before, Pemex will invest USD2.64 billion to complete a coking plant at its Tula refinery as the country seeks to reduce its dependence on imported fuels, said earlier the state company's CEO. The project, which Pemex expects to finish by 2023, will allow Pemex to process 90% of the fuel oil produced at Tula and at neighboring Salamanca, Octavio Romero Oropeza said during the daily press conference held by Mexican President Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
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