BREAKING: Warning on gasoline shortage in Mexico
Baja NoMas
Fulano – 12-18-2016
GUADALAJARA – In a letter directed to President Enrique Peña Nieto, the Mexican Association of Gas Station Operators warned there is an imminent risk of a gasoline shortage starting on January 1, 2017 in the entire country. This is due to the manner in which Pemex has warned them to sign new contracts consistent with the energy reform law.
The association explained in its letter that at the end of last November Pemex Industrial Transformation notified some gas stations of the adjustments to the contracts for the sale and marketing of fuel, and gave a them a period of 10 days to sign, unconditionally, to the new contracts for 3-1/2 or 7 years.
“It was impossible over a period of 10 days for the 11,444 gas station businesses in Mexico to decide on the new contracts. Even worse is that at the Pemex gas storage terminals they are applying radical measures, such as denying distribution of fuel to gas stations which have not signed that they have received the new contracts. Pemex is using discriminatory tactics, with threats they will not have fuel starting January 1, 2017,” said the letter.
For the association, made up of 350 businesses with more than 1,200 gas stations in 32 Mexican states, the pressure from Pemex is incongruent, as the price of gasoline will be set by the free market starting on February 1, 2017 only in the states of Baja California and Sonora.
The letter asks the president of Mexico to guarantee the supply of fuel and to authorize a period of 90 days to review the new contracts and 180 days to formalize them.