Mexico's President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on June 15, said that the country would sell gasoline to Venezuela if the South American country made the request. This is despite the US sanctions that are currently imposed on Venezuela. Obrador specified that Venezuela had not made any request. However, an official with the Venezuelan presidential palace confirmed that the country would request Mexico for gasoline soon.
Venezuela has been suffering from severe fuel shortages for months. The country's state-owned PDVSA has been rendered unable to meet domestic fuel needs after years of underinvestment and lack of qualified workforces. Gasoline shipments from Iran have alleviated the shortages in Caracas, which could provide PDVSA with time to repair its production facilities with help from Iran and China.
Meanwhile, Mexico is traditionally a gasoline importer, especially from the US. However, state-owned Pemex's gasoline output has increased slightly in recent months in line with the president's goal to ease dependence on fuel imports. Mexico's imports of gasoline stood at 304,000 bpd in April, decreasing nearly 50% from January's imports due to the coronavirus containment measures. Pemex produced 220,000 bpd of gasoline during the same month.
