Pemex boosts fuel truck fleet to recover market share

Mexico’s national oil company Pemex has received 30 last-mile retail fuel tanker trucks.

CEO Octavio Romero Oropeza hailed the delivery as a step forward in expanding the firm’s logistics capacity and recovery of the local fuel market.

In a statement, Romero said the trucks are the first batch of 1,800 new units for the commercial fuel distribution fleet. The rest will be delivered over the next 12 months.

“The strategy is to grow from 5,600 to 7,600 daily trips, with which we would go from serving 7,000 service stations to more than 9,000 by the end of the year,” Romero said, adding the current fleet can deliver 900,000b/d of refined products. 

The new units should help increase the number of possible transfer routes between terminals from two to 58, he added.

SLOW START

Launched in November, Pemex has been offering credit and discounts to retail fuel sales businesses as part of an initiative to win back market share. The plan, however, took off slowly.

According to research firm Petrointelligence’s latest report with data from energy regulator CRE and retailers, there were 4,611 service stations selling under a brand other than Pemex in December 2021, while 8,273 stations sold under the Pemex brand.

A month earlier, the number of non-Pemex stations was 4,539, while 8,337 Pemex stations were operating.

Non-Pemex brands have expanded their footprint considerably. Petrointelligence reported there were 2,470 non-Pemex service stations in December 2019 and 8,773 Pemex ones.

PIPELINE CONTRACT

In other news, Pemex has canceled a gas pipeline contract, initially expected to remain valid for 25 years. The pipeline was planned to transport fuel from Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico to Hidalgo state, but was not used for the last five years, according to Romero.  

Pemex still paid US$4.2mn a year for pipeline access.

According to energy news website Energy and Commerce, Romero did not reveal the name of the private fuel transport company. 

In the past, state-owned power company CFE signed similar contracts, which the current administration said were damaging company finances.  

However, certain contracts, such as those with Sempra’s IEnova, were not canceled but renegotiated on better terms for CFE. 

In March 2021, Romero said the current administration acknowledged that a company built the pipeline from Poza Rica to Tula and that it had been rented to carry gas from that area of Veracruz. However, the planned project to obtain natural gas from Poza Rica did not materialize.