MEXICO CITY (AP) – The United States approved the acquisition of 50% of the stake in the Deer Park refinery, located in Houston, by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexican authorities announced on Wednesday.
During his morning briefing, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador indicated that the day before the United States had completed the approvals for Pemex to acquire 50% of Shell’s shares in Deer Park, which would allow it to take control of the refinery’s entire equity stake.
With this operation the Mexican government aims to expand the refining capacity of the Latin American nation at a time when most countries are looking to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) authorized Pemex to acquire the stake in the refinery. “The Committee has determined that there are no national security concerns left unresolved,” Ebrard stated.
For its part, Pemex’s chief, Octavio Romero, explained that as part of the deal $596 million will be paid, equivalent to 50% of Deer Park’s debt, with funds drawn from the National Infrastructure Fund of the Secretariat of Finance.
Shell has not yet commented on the U.S. authorization.
Defending the operation, López Obrador stated that with Deer Park the Mexican refining system, composed of six refineries, can increase its refining capacity by around 700,000 barrels per day, and he asserted that by 2023 the Latin American country would be able to process all of its fuels.
Local media reported that two businessmen had launched a lawsuit in a U.S. court to prevent Pemex from taking control of the refinery, but Mexican authorities offered no comment on the matter.
Owning the Deer Park refinery would allow Pemex to refine heavier Mexican crude without producing fuel oil as a byproduct. Mexico’s existing refineries struggle to achieve this, resulting in stockpiles of fuel oil—a highly polluting fuel with a limited export market—that have accumulated in the country, and the government has been increasingly using it in state-owned power plants.
Shell’s decision appears to be part of a broader international strategy to consolidate its refineries and begin a transition toward renewable energy resources.
The aim is for refineries to be more integrated with chemical complexes and to produce more biofuels, hydrogen and synthetic fuels.
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