Exxon to enter Mexico fuel retail sector

ExxonMobil announced on Wednesday that it plans to invest USD 300 million to establish a chain of fuel retail stations across Mexico over the next 10 years.

The super-major aims to enter the country’s downstream sector in the second half of 2017, selling its Synergy fuel products. The company will follow up the opening of its first Mobil-branded station with several more before year’s end.

The announcement follows the recent opening of the first foreign-owned fuel retail station in the country. Another major energy company, BP, inaugurated its station in Mexico City in March. That company expects to own 200 such stations in Mexico by the end of 2017, and 1,500 within five years.

Shell has also been reported by Mexican media to be considering the launch of a fuel retail station business there in 2017.

International super-majors see much opportunity in the opening of Mexico’s retail sector as part of a larger oil and gas industry liberalisation. Under a Pemex monopoly for nearly 80 years, Mexico’s petrol market is the fourth-largest globally.

Several local companies have already opened hundreds of stations under their own brands since the retail sector was officially opened to private participation in January 2016.