Mexico’s Pemex Has Too Much Fuel and Nowhere to Store It All

  • Ships holding gasoline told there’s no storage space on land
  • Sales at privately-owned gas stations have fallen 40% to 50%
Photographer: Luis Antonio Rojas/Bloomberg
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Mexico’s Pemex has too much gasoline and nowhere to store it, potentially racking up significant ship fees as demand wanes because of the fast-spreading coronavirus.

A lack of storage capacity in Mexico is forcing the state-owned oil company to leave its fuel purchases in ships off the coast of Mexico, according to three people familiar with the situation and ship-tracking data. Now as much as 3 million barrels of refined products are sitting in tankers off of Mexico’s coast.