The most recent date for pre-qualified independent gasoline and diesel marketers to submit proposals for Pemex’s pipelines and terminals that they want to book was Feb. 17, but Mexico’s Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE) has decided that more time is needed, according to Guido, partner at Strategic Business Development. No new dates for bid and assignment have been offered, he said.

The move likely means that companies won’t receive allocated capacities until sometime in March. The delay in assignments may spur some of the first companies to obtain 12-month import permits in April 2016 to reapply or to seek extensions.

Fuel distributors and retailers who have been considering the terms offered by Pemex Logistica for use of its transportation also got some clarity regarding loss of product in Pemex pipelines. Company Director Roberto Revilla Ostos stated recently that the company will not cover any loss of product put into its transportation system which does not arrive at its destination. The company will be liable only for the fee applied to transport the missing product, he said.

As reported by OPIS in January, in the first phase of the open seasons Pemex will make available about 267,000 b/d of pipeline capacity and around 959,000 bbl in storage capacity in northern Mexico. In accordance with the schedule of gasoline and diesel price flexibility to be established by CRE, the open seasons will be carried out by region.

The first phase will be in the northern zone of the country, and will include storage terminals and pipeline systems in the border states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s liberalization of gasoline and diesel prices continues.

The government opted not to follow a Jan. 1 increase of 14% to 20% in retail prices with further upward adjustments for the first and second weeks of February, in response to intense public and political condemnation and partly thanks to the lower cost of imported supply (due to weaker U.S. prices and strength in the peso).

However, another small price rise is possible beginning Feb. 18. At that time, the government can adjust ceiling prices daily in line with international market prices for phased-in deregulation.

Movement in the fiscal stimulus offered to fuel marketers by the federal government has allowed it to keep retail prices unchanged from January. And should international pricing and exchange rates work to raise Mexico’s cost of supply, the country’s finance ministry (SHCP) has indicated its willingness to postpone spending on large projects — such as a highway planned for Queretaro — so that the funds go toward the fiscal stimulus to limit retail fuel increases.

That fiscal stimulus — the refundable difference between what marketers spend for Pemex supply and the lowest allowable retail price at which they can sell — remains a contentious issue for retailers because claiming it carries with it the onus of financing the refund for some 45 days.

According to Guido, for a station that typically sells 11 million liters in a month, that financing can run at upwards of US$1.5 million.

Marketers have to wait for the end of the calendar month to apply for the refund and meet criteria such as volumetric system data showing that all the fuel purchased was sold to customers and attestation by legal representatives of that data. They have been promised a 13-day turnaround of those applications.

For marketers along the northern border, Feb. 14 will be the first test of the government’s guarantee to refund their financial outlay of the 3.27 pesos/liter stimulus in play during January.