LATAM Weekly Oil Summary: Pemex Cutting Back on Crude Exports

MEXICO - Pemex is planning to supply less crude over the next few months, after it cancelled supply contracts from its Maya crude oil to refiners in the US, Europe and Asia.

• The decision was made to boost domestic gasoline and diesel output ahead of the presidential election on 2 June, sources told Bloomberg.
• The reduction in Pemex’ crude oil export will be gradual as the firm is raising its refining capacity with the startup of the new 340kbpd Dos Bocas refinery, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday, cited by Dow Jones.
• Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that the 340k b/d Dos Bocas refinery will begin producing diesel in April.
• Utilisation rates at Mexico’s Pemex domestic refineries fell slightly in February after reaching the highest since May 2017 in January. Meanwhile, Mexico’s crude oil exports fell by 35% on the month to 697kbpd in March.
• VENEZUELA - Twenty former US officials urged the Biden administration to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela if Maduro reneges on democratic promises by the April 18 deadline, Platts said.
• Venezuelan crude oil production is estimated to decline to 890kbpd by the end of 2025, if the US will reimpose sanctions according to Rystad Energy’s senior VP Jorge Leon. However, output could hit 1m b/d in US extends sanctions relief, Leon said.
• Crude exports out of Venezuela increased 30% m/m in March reaching an 11-month high according to Vortexa ahead of an increasingly likely re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on April 18.