TOKYO - Idemitsu Kosan Co, Japan's No. 3 oil refiner, has started exporting gas oil to Mexico on a spot basis, in addition to longer contracts, as demand for oil products in the Central American nation grows.
Company officials declined to disclose the volume and timing of the shipments.
Idemitsu is also looking at exporting gasoline to Mexico, but has not signed a contract yet, the officials added. Japanese refiners, faced with falling demand at home, are boosting oil exports in hope of gaining higher margins.
Idemitsu earlier this year signed its first contract with the trading arm of Mexico's state oil monopoly Pemex, PMI Trading Ltd., to export 200,000 kilolitres a year (3,446 barrels per day) of gas oil or diesel. The contract marked the company's first term oil product export with any nation since the number of its refineries shrank to four in 2004, when domestic demand peaked.
The company plans to export about 1.5 million kl (26,000 bpd) of oil products in the year ending next March, up 500,000 kilolitres from the previous year.
Pemex is the world's No. 6 oil producer and a top supplier of crude oil to the United States.
Company officials declined to disclose the volume and timing of the shipments.
Idemitsu is also looking at exporting gasoline to Mexico, but has not signed a contract yet, the officials added. Japanese refiners, faced with falling demand at home, are boosting oil exports in hope of gaining higher margins.
Idemitsu earlier this year signed its first contract with the trading arm of Mexico's state oil monopoly Pemex, PMI Trading Ltd., to export 200,000 kilolitres a year (3,446 barrels per day) of gas oil or diesel. The contract marked the company's first term oil product export with any nation since the number of its refineries shrank to four in 2004, when domestic demand peaked.
The company plans to export about 1.5 million kl (26,000 bpd) of oil products in the year ending next March, up 500,000 kilolitres from the previous year.
Pemex is the world's No. 6 oil producer and a top supplier of crude oil to the United States.
