Mexico’s AMLO Touts U.S. Approval of $596M Deer Park Refinery Purchase

Mexico president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday that the U.S. Treasury Department has approved Shell plc’s sale of its 50.005% stake in the Deer Park, TX, oil refinery to Mexican state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

The 340,000 b/d refinery currently operates as Deer Park Refining LP, a joint venture between Shell and Pemex.

The transaction, valued at $596 million and expected to close in early 2022, “means more capacity to process our crude oil, the primary material extracted from wells in our country, both from onshore wells and shallow waters,” the president said during his morning press briefing.

Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard displayed a letter from the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) indicating the approval....