Tequila
Canada - Summer, Mexico - Winter
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It is cerftainly good news regardless, Ed. I sent out our newsletter yesterday with ULSD updates, now I have to send our an adendum. One I am glad to take the trouble to do.
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MEXICOWANDERER
las peñas, michoacan, mexico
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Additional Resources
From The Horse's Mouth...The Director of PEMEX
https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/empresas........A-el-proximo-ano-AMIA-20180723-0058.html
* This post was
edited 09/29/18 09:13pm by MEXICOWANDERER *
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Ed White
Kelowna, BC, Canada
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Interesting - the article claims that 81% of the diesel fuel was ULSD in July, when the article was written.
Who knows what to believe. ALL of my lab tests from the Mainland and Baja are ULSD, and there hasn't been a single case of sulfur poisoning reported to me since late 2017.
The anecdotal and lab evidence suggests that the CEO's comments are at odds with what is going on in the field and the contracts awarded to upgrade refineries in the last year.
I'm sticking to my position that there's ULSD everywhere because problems have COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED.
* This post was
edited 09/29/18 09:26pm by Ed White *
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MEXICOWANDERER
las peñas, michoacan, mexico
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Yes Ed. I proofed the link only to find my computer locked up. So I redid it again and proofed it again. The problem seems to be here in Mexico with overloaded ties to outside the country.
Xavier told me 3 months ago that the Salina Cruz refinacion had grading work done next to the hydrocracker but not one load of steel nor vessels were brought in to make a Delayed Coker, the essential first step in extracting carbon or sulfur.
There were sulfuric acid precipitation vessels installed for manufacturing UBA Premium but zero has been done to reduce the level of sulfur in Magna.
The areas most affected by the no-show desulfurization vessels in Salina Cruz are ports up and down the West Coast. Xavier said "When you see extraneous gasolineras from Mazatlan to Tapachula then UBA diesel becomes a reality. UBA diesel from Salina Cruz is a lie" He told me that AMLO is especially directing efforts to get Salina Cruz straightened out. At the moment the refinacion is producing normal diesel in normal amounts and they are unwilling to cut back production. Therefore the only UBA present is premium gasoline. Pemex has no plans at all for extraneous gasolineras from Lazaro Cardenas, southward to Guatemala. SEMPRA was denied permission to build port facilities at Lazaro Cardenas even though hundreds of acres of open land are available. SEMPRA is the largest distributor of Chevron fuels. We can only hope BP has a chance there.
My experience is the gasolineras from Lazaro southward are some of the crookedest in the country.
My big hope is that AMLO fulfills his promises. Better fuels and litros completos are a god given right, not a luxury.
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MEXICOWANDERER
las peñas, michoacan, mexico
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In order to make the question clear this needs a yes or no answer...
Did you take fuel samples in Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Acapulco, Salina Cruz, Chilpancingo, Morelia, Tuxtla Gutierrez...?
I am an engineer by temperament.
What clarification does, is eliminate doubt.
I would tend to put weight on the CEO's information because it is his butt that is in the hot seat. Why make himself look bad? There is INTENSE PRESSURE to make Mexico 100% UBA in all comistibles. Xavier's word is unimpeachable. He has been dead-on accurate for the last six years.
There "seems to be" resistance from the government? Pemex? about reducing output of diesel of the Salina Cruz refinacion. Would this mean a similar cutback in gasoline production? Is there enough demand for Diesel Marina? God only knows.
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT
But it's come to pass exactly like Ernesto told me 2 years ago and I passed on to this board...
Refinery upgrading for ultra-low-sulfur-diesel was then and is now a myth.
WHO CARES IF 100% OF THE UBA DIESEL IS EXTRANEOUS? IT GETS THE JOB DONE.
Mexico has a big enough job to get almost all the sulfur out of Magna. That monumental task alone will do as much to clean remaining SO2 out of city air as anything else Pemex can do to do help reduce emissions. Mexican Magna has 5 times the sulfur emission as compared to US gasoline. Reduce the sulfur and gasoline quality goes up -- way up.
When I was loading molten Sulfur onto insulated tankers forty years ago it was taken to Stauffer Chemical to be converted to concentrated Sulfuric acid and returned to be to be precipitated through Iso Butane to make Alkylate. One of the really cherry components of good gasoline. And a key component of AV Gas.
Tours of the Salamanca refinacion, a good look at Reynosa and Salina Cruz showed me key process stream plants were missing. Non existent.
For Mexico to upgrade it's existing refineries to take advantage of newer technologies and utilize full pressure hydrogen to feed it's GOSRH, Hydrocrackers, Reformers, Cat feed and Cat gas hydrocrackers, make alkylation plants and upsize cat crackers would be a ten year hundreds of billions of dollars project. The Manhattan Project of Mexico. The publicity versus the reality is and was a political stunt. And I could care less for political intrigue. It does not do a damned thing for engines or emissions.
I am stuck in a Twilight Zone area of the coast where ARCO, BP, Shell, and Chevron have no port facilities. This means 101% Mexican refined fuels except for Premium (Japanese origin) and the Japanese put their foot down feeding Baja California the one state with UBA diesel. No more. Not one drop more, says Japan. A lot of their diesel is 0 PPM fuel -- no sulfur at all.
If you have experience between operating a hissy-fit gasoline engine on extraneous refined gasoline and Mexican refined gasoline you will see a very unpleasant difference. Premium is not a few cents more expensive these days -- it is almost forty cents a gallon more expensive. Using Techron is a savior but it is neither convenient nor inexpensive.
Thankfully few RV diesel rigs operate within the range of Salina Cruz distribution. And those that do -- do so for a limited mileage factor.
So it is a moot point unless an expat moves to the Salina Cruz influence with a newer sensitive diesel. I wish the transition was complete and makes a discussion such as this utterly obsolete. I can expect different fuel economy with my Kubota and litros completos when I go to fill up vehicles and drums.
Conclusion -- where you see foreign gasolineras, you will find UBA in all gasolinera diesel and hopefully litros completos in the foreign stations.
As for sulfur in gasoline (GASP!) here is a link that is basically understandable. The millions upon millions of gallons of high sulfur MAGNA gasoline burned daily in the capitol smog valley is yet another component of winter eye watering pollutant.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920586103004127
It's light years better than it was just three years ago.
Further footnote information...
http://www.pemex.com/ri/Deuda/Calificaci........ex%20Issuer%20In-Depth%20July%202018.pdf
* This post was
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MEXICOWANDERER
las peñas, michoacan, mexico
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Moody's has a very interesting piece about why Pemex despite loud proclamations has done nothing at all in five years to modernize or upgrade it's refineries to produce UBA diesel. In fact south of Manzanillo all the way to the Guatemalan border -- Morelia, Chilpnacingo, and Tuxtla Gutierrez included...
100% of the diesel sold is regular refined in Mexico diesel. Owners of brand new vehicles that demand only ULSD should take this fact into travel plans.
Read the very bottom link. Not only is the myth of 100% UBA diesel Mexico de-bunked, it explains how and why this happened. Only the extreme south west Pacific area is affected. A very small percentage of RV'ers travel this area except perhaps for San Cristobal de Las Casas
The revelation of this should have a very minor impact on travel plans to the country. Nevertheless it exists and cannot be ignored.
Any argument to this should be made to the director of Pemex and to Moody's, who is Petroleos Mexicanos prime extraneous financial advisor.
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Ed White
Kelowna, BC, Canada
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It sure seems like I have to go through a huge p---ing match on this forum every year, even though, YEAR AFTER YEAR, my information has been 100% correct in predicting what issues, if any, would be present for owners of late model diesels. In 11 years of my work on this project, NOT A SINGLE NAYSAYER and NOT A SINGLE PROPHET OF DOOM, has been correct.
At this stage, I'm not particularly interested in yet another p----ing match, even though I have plenty of documentation, including a copy of a Pemex delivery slip to a station in Puerto Vallarta showing DUBA delivery, and reports from Mexico by HUNDREDS of drivers of late model diesel vehicles.
I'll just post one item here today, because it comes from a source outside of my contacts and from outside of Pemex. It can be found at this link:
http://arendal.com.mx/en/?project=duba-salina-cruz
As you can see, it is a confirmation from Arendal Engineering, which I believe is a subsidiary of Foster Wheeler, stating that the Mexican Salina Cruz refinery desulfuring upgrade (to allow it to produce ULSD) has been completed.
Here is a link to the 2014 original Foster Wheeler announcement that they had the contract and it would be finished in early 2018:
https://www.ogj.com/articles/2014/10/details-emerge-on-pemex-s-salina-cruz-refinery-upgrade.html
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Talleyho69
Playa la Ropa, Zihuatanejo, Mexico
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Thank you SO much for all of the information you have and are providing.
It's unfortunate that there are doubters.
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qtla9111
Monterrey, Mexico
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This has been the same over the years trying to convince people that:
Mexico had ATMs (first installed in 1972)
Pemex stations were truly franchises
Mexico is not a third-world country
Mexico has the same number of people living in poverty as our neighbor to the north
Murder rates are similar between the U.S. and Mexico
Mexico has a different system of calculating the minimum wage
Mexico’s real name is the United States of Mexico
Mexicans Don’t Celebrate 5 de Mayo
Mexico is in North America
You will be kidnapped
. . . and yes I understand and recognize the meaning of "per capita" and so on to ad nauseam.
It's tough trying to break habits and myths about Mexico.
2005 Dodge Durango Hemi
2008 Funfinder 230DS
Living and Boondocking Mexico Blog
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Talleyho69
Playa la Ropa, Zihuatanejo, Mexico
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Maybe if we all keep working on it..... Thanks!
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