Mexican state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos says it will not begin exporting high-quality Olmeca crude to Europe until the second half of February.
Pemex said on 6 Jan, that exports of the extra-light Olmeca would begin in January, but it announced yesterday, 23 Jan, via Twitter, that the start date had been pushed back.
Pemex said the first shipment to Europe would be sent to Varo Energy's Cressier refinery, a short distance west of Bern, Switzerland. The refinery was built by Shell in 1966, sold to PetroPlus in 2000, and to the Varo Energy JV in June 2012. It has a refining capacity of 68,000 bo/d (pictured at right).
“In this way, PMI Comercio Internacional (Pemex’s international oil trading arm) is fulfilling (the goal of) diversifying commercially and entering alternate markets,” the company said in one of its tweets.
Pemex said previously that since it began exporting Olmeca in 1989, its main market has been the US Gulf Coast refinery system, with smaller but regular shipments of that crude variety to the Dominican Republic.
Mexico produces three grades of crude: Maya. (heavy), Isthmus (light) and Olmeca (extra light). Olmeca is paraffinic, with gravity of 38.9° -39.3 °API. It has a nickel and vanadium content of less than 15 ppm.
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