By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 29 -- Petroleos Mexicanos plans to upgrade its 194,000 b/cd refinery near Minatitlan in Veracruz. The Minatitlan refinery is Mexico's oldest.
The planned upgrades will enable the plant to refine additional heavy, high-sulfur oil and increase the production of low-sulfur gasoline and middle distillates.
The upgrades will be made possible through a $216.8 million export sale, which is backed by a $200 million loan guarantee from the US Export-Import Bank.
Ex-Im Bank's long-term loan guarantee supports Pemex's purchase of US goods and services to build nine new processing units at its Gen. Lazaro Cardenas refinery (Minatitlan).
Ronald L. Stewart, chief executive officer for FS-Elliott Co. LLC, Export, Pa., said Ex-Im Bank financing of projects such as the Minatitlan refinery upgrade "creates strong incentive for the purchaser to use US companies."
FS-Elliott is one of 43 US small businesses participating in the export sale. It and other suppliers such as Merichem Chemicals & Refinery Services LLC, Houston, will work through several large engineering, procurement, and construction contractors on the Minatitlan project.
FS-Elliott is providing $1.5 million of custom-built air compressors and Merichem is supplying a $4 million skid-mounted modular caustic treatment-processing unit for the project.
"Oil companies are doing major capital investment, and our backlogs are growing dramatically," Stewart said.
Merichem Pres. Felipe Suarez said, "We're a small company and we couldn't finance this export sale by ourselves. If it hadn't been for the Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed loan, a much larger global competitor, able to offer the buyer competitive financing, likely would have won the order."
