With aging facilities and infrastructure, and a lack of storage capacity, Mexico’s government increasingly is turning to the private sector for help with its much-needed energy reform, an issue addressed Tuesday, June 12, during the International Liquid Terminals Association’s 38th annual operating conference in Houston.
Fernando Pereira, a manager and director for Hidrocarburos del Sureste, or Hidrosur, which is a subsidiary of Grupo Lodemo, spoke about his company’s development of the first privately held marine storage terminal built with Mexican capital in Mexico.
The new facility in the port of Progreso, Yucatán, which is backed by an investor group of gas-station owners, was designed to address the region’s severe lack of capacity for hydrocarbons that has led to an increased dependency on imports of gasoline, diesel and jet fuels.
Robert House, a business line manager for Kiewit, the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contractor for Hidrosur’s Yucatan project, addressed the challenges of working in Mexico, including a lack of clarity with still developing energy policy standards and the terminal’s challenging location.
Allan Roach, a senior vice president of global strategy at Watco Companies, rounded out the expert panel for the discussion, called “The New Frontier: Building and Operating Liquid Terminals in Mexico,” by highlighting his company’s efforts to develop Mexico’s first purpose-built refined petroleum products multi-use unit train terminal for supplying jet fuel, gas, diesel, ethanol and other commodities.
The first phase, with rail car to truck loading, opened in October, 2017, and the second phase, including storage tanks, which was slowed by permitting issues, is expected to go online in the first quarter of 2019.
For more information on Mexico’s industry-altering energy reform and how it’s creating opportunities in a post-monopoly environment for modernization and increased storage capacity financed by the private sector – a hot topic in the storage-terminals business – check out the August issue of Bulk Transporter.
