MEXICO DATA: Crudes exports at fresh high, product imports hit 7-mth peak

Quantum Commodity Intelligence - Mexico's crude oil exports in July hit a 7-month high, mainly on a 21% increase in the flow to Asia, which rebounded after a sharp drop in June, data released by state-owned oil company Pemex showed Wednesday.

A total of 1.173 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude was exported, with 317,000 bpd going to Asia, while 710,000 bpd went elsewhere in the Americas (+2% on the month) and 145,000 bpd went to Europe (-3%).

The total was the highest seen since December when 1.243 million bpd was exported and was up 6% on the month, 12% from July 2020 and 9% from the same month 2019.

Crude production was up 0.3% on the month for the second month running at 1.944 million bpd, but this was a fresh high at the most since April last year.

Meanwhile, refinery output was 1.5% up on the month at 743,000 bpd on increased gasoline and distillate production, but fuel oil output fell 6% to an 8-month low of 211,000 bpd.

Even as domestic production of refined products rose, imports also gained slightly to another 7-month high in the data, at 617,000 bpd, driven mostly by a 3% gain for gasoline to 390,000 bpd – the most in eight months.

Domestic demand for gasoline was flat on the month at 575,000 bpd of deliveries though, while diesel and jet moved in opposite directions with diesel falling 5% to 196,000 bpd while jet rose 15% to 69,000 bpd - the most since February 2020.

Mobility in August has been falling in Mexico according to the latest Google data and daily Covid cases have hit record numbers of close to 30,000 according to Johns Hopkins University.

Crude exports and production figures for August are also likely to be badly affected by the fire this week at one of Pemex's Gulf of Mexico oil production platforms which took over 400,000 bpd offline ahead of a planned restart at the end of the month.