• EXPANSION: Texas-based Valero Energy announced it will open fuel service stations in Mexico, joining other firms already operating in the country since 2014. The company’s most immediate goal is to open at least 15 stations starting in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest metro area.
• METHODICALLY: “We will grow very methodically, very slowly, through an efficient logistics network so that we can guarantee the supply of our products,” said Carlos García, head of Valero Energy’s operations in Mexico, noting that the company exports fuel to Mexico since 2018.
• STORAGE: In November, Valero Energy signed an arrangement to build a 900,000 barrels storage terminal in Guadalajara. Along with other contracts to build facilities in Monterrey, Veracruz, Puebla, Altamira, and Mexico City, Valero’s storage capacity in Mexico will amount to 5.8 million barrels.
• BRANDS: For decades, state-owned oil company Pemex held a monopoly in retail fuel sales in Mexico, but after the country’s historic 2014 energy reform, this changed. According to last year’s numbers, 3,669 of the total 12,247 service stations in the country are from brands other than Pemex.
