Salina Cruz News

Alewijnse Marine has completed the electrical fit-out of the Mexican Navy’s latest vessel; the Long Range Ocean Patrol (POLA) vessel ARM Reformador. Built at the ASTIMAR 20 naval shipyard in Salina Cruz, Mexico, with the Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards and its suppliers, it is widely regarded as the most advanced naval vessel afloat in Latin America.The scope of works covered all aspects of the ship’s electrical systems, including engineering, the supply and installation of equipment, project coordination and supervision, and commissioning.

The Secretariat of the Navy of Mexico (SEMAR) has held a ceremony marking delivery of the Long Range Ocean Patrol (POLA) Class vessel ARM Reformador. The delivery ceremony was attended by Admiral José Rafael Ojeda Durán, Secretary of the Navy and High Command of the Mexican Navy, in the company of Mr. Juan Carlos Atecas Altamirano, Municipal President of Salina Cruz Oaxaca. Damen Shipyards Group was represented by Executive Board member René Berkvens, President of Damen Shipyards Mexico Horacio Delgado, and POLA Project Director Frank Verhelst.

ARM Reformador project shows economic impact of local shipbuilding.Working in close cooperation, Damen Shipyards Group, the Mexican Navy, subcontractors and suppliers have completed successful sea trials of the Mexican Navy’s POLA-class ARM Reformador. The programme of sea trials was comprehensive, including testing of platform and combat systems in addition to training of Mexican Navy crews. The completion of these sea trials indicate how the project as a whole is progressing…

Due to the port visit of the Mexican Sail Training Vessel ARM Cuauhtémoc to Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Damen Shipyards welcomed a group of officers, cadets and crew into its facilities in Gorinchem, The Netherlands. With this event, Damen celebrates its relationship of more than 40 years with Mexico, a country with some of Damen’s most important and long lasting customers.Through this relationship with Mexico, Damen has contributed significantly and is still committed to the development of the Mexican shipbuilding industry via its technical cooperation program…

Damen Shipyards Group and the Mexican Navy, via the Directorate General of Shipbuilding, are currently working together to build the Long Range Ocean Patrol (POLA (from its initials in Spanish)), the most technologically advanced vessel in Latin America. With this, the Mexican Navy will join the long list of navies around the world that have Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding vessels in their fleets. POLA will be the Mexican version of the Damen SIGMA 10514, a proven design that has booked successful results internationally. POLA will be 107 meters in length, with a beam of 14 meter.

Fuel exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast are rising rapidly as refineries recover from weeks of disruptions due to Hurricane Harvey, offering respite to buyers in Latin America and Europe. The gradual resumption of operations in the region that has become a major oil export hub has prompted a drop in benchmark gasoline and diesel refining margins on both sides of the Atlantic. Margins measure the profit from converting crude into fuels. Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex bought gasoline cargoes from the U.S. Gulf Coast this week, according to shipping data, after sourcing dozens of cargoes from Europe, the Middle East and Asia through the month. Mexico, which relies on imports for half of its gasoline consumption, typically buys two cargoes of the road fuel per day, mostly from the U.S.

Tropical Storm Dora, located off the western coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean, is strengthening quickly and is expected to become a hurricane on Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday. Maximum sustained winds were about 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour), with higher gusts. Dora was strengthening quickly and was forecast to become a hurricane on Monday, the NHC said in its latest advisory late on Sunday night. The NHC warned of possible heavy rains along the southwestern coast of Mexico but added that the center of the storm was expected to move parallel to the coast of Mexico but remain offshore. It said no coastal watches or warnings were in effect.

Mexican state oil producer Pemex said on Thursday that it expects to restart operations on July 30 at Salina Cruz, its largest oil refinery, after it was hit last week hit by flooding and subsequent fire that forced a shutdown of the plant. The program contemplates three-way actions: Restarting operations; cleaning and rehabilitation of the affected site and general maintenance, taking advantage of the shutdown of the process. This last activity would allow for the advancement of the maintenance that was scheduled for next April, thus reducing the financial impact of the shutdown of the refinery. It is estimated that operations of the refinery will restart on July 30.

Tropical Storm Beatriz approached Mexico's Pacific coast on Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, dumping heavy rains that resulted in at least two deaths, caused landslides and forced road closures and flight cancellations. The emergency services in the southwestern state of Oaxaca said a landslide in the village of San Marcial Ozolotepec buried some houses and rescuers had found one dead boy, while one more was missing. Another woman was killed by a landslide in the village of San Carlos Yautepec, the emergency services added. The NHC said the storm was about 15 miles (24 km) south of the town of Puerto Angel, on Mexico's southwestern Pacific coast, blowing maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (72 kmh).

Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex will increase crude exports to Japan in the coming months after selling several spot cargoes to customers including Cosmo Oil, JX Holdings and TonenGeneral, according to a company source and Thomson Reuters trade flows data. Pemex typically sends around 1 million barrels per month of Maya crude to Cosmo Oil under a supply agreement, but the company recently negotiated additional deliveries, the source said. The cargoes of Maya and Isthmus crudes will arrive in Japan from May through June after loading at Mexico's Dos Bocas and Salina Cruz terminals, according to Thomson Reuters data. Mexico's crude exports have fallen in recent months amid declining oil output.

Mexico's Pemex said on Friday it had agreed to ship six million barrels of its light crude to Japan's largest refinery over the next six months, as the state-run oil company seeks to further develop its ties with Asia. The shipments of Isthmus crude will go via six cargoes between this August and January 2016 to JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. Pemex already shipped about 4 million barrels to JX Nippon in the first half of the year. Pemex had been negotiating with buyers in Japan and South Korea earlier this year about the chloride content of its crude, and said it would offer discounts if the level of the chemical that can cause corrosion was higher than usual. The crude will be shipped from Pemex's Salina Cruz terminal on the southern Pacific coast of Mexico.

Nine Voith Water Tractors will be built under an agreement signed with Mexico's petroleum company, Pemex, for use at oil and gas maritime terminals on both coasts of the country.    Construction on four of the nine tugboats began after a keel laying ceremony at Astimar 20, Mexico's biggest shipyard, located in the port of Salina Cruz on Mexico's Pacific Coast.    In attendance was Mexico's President, Enrique Peña Nieto, who spoke about the importance of the project for the country.

After the delivery of an LTM 1500-8.1, Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH can now boast the proud total of 30,000 mobile cranes supplied to customers. The Liebherr 500-tonner was supplied to the Mexican company Grupo DPH, a crane and heavy load contractor. In reaching its decision to buy from Liebherr, one of the major factors for Grupo DPH was the existence of Liebherr Mexico S.de R.L, a sales and service subsidiary founded in 2013. The LTM 1500-8.1 was handed over in the port of Salina Cruz in the south of Mexico. Grupo DPH has a warehouse at the port which currently acts as a distribution centre for the wind power plant manufacturer Vestas. At the present time the warehouse contains 130 generators and hubs for wind turbines.

Mexico's Pemex has quietly begun shipping light Isthmus crude to a variety of West Coast refiners this year, according to U.S. and Reuters data, resuming such sales after a six-year hiatus. The state-run oil company, which exported only about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Isthmus last year, shipped about 340,000 barrels of the crude to Valero Energy Corp at Benicia, California, in January and February, according to U.S. government data. It sent another 350,000 barrels (48,000 tonnes) to Tesoro Corp in San Francisco in March, according to Eikon's trade flow database based on PIERS data. Pemex then exported another 150,000 barrels to Shell Trading at Anacortes, Washington, in May from the Salina Cruz terminal.

Strong winds and choppy seas produced by a Gulf of Mexico cold front forced the closure of two of Mexico's main oil exporting ports on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. Pajaritos port, part of the Coatzacoalcos complex in eastern Veracruz state, was shuttered to oil tankers as waves crested at eight feet and winds blew at 30 to 33 miles per hour (50-55 km per hour), transportation officials said. The port of Dos Bocas, located in the southeastern state of Tabasco, was also closed but transportation officials did not provide conditions at the port. Mexico's two other ports - the Gulf port of Cayo Arcas in southeastern Campeche state and the Pacific facility of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state - were both open on Tuesday afternoon.

The Mexican oil export facility at Pajaritos in eastern Veracruz state reopened to shipping traffic early on Thursday and the nation's three other oil ports were operating normally, said port officials. Pajaritos, part of the Coatzacoalcos complex, reopened at 6 a.m. (1200 GMT) as weather conditions improved, said an official at the captain's office. Winds were around 3 miles per hour (5 km per hour) and waves were between two and three feet, he said. The Gulf ports of Dos Bocas in southeastern Tabasco state and Cayo Arcas in nearby Campeche state were also open to shipping, said officials at the captain's office in each port. Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast was operating normally, said port officials.

Mexico's Pajaritos oil export terminal and Dos Bocas port, which also handles oil tankers, were both closed to shipping, the Transport Ministry said in a routine report. Pajaritos, a Gulf port located in the Coatzacoalcos complex in the southern state of Veracruz, closed at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a port official. He said weather conditions on Wednesday included winds of 19-25 mph (30-40 km per hour), and 8-foot (2.5-meter) waves. Dos Bocas, also on the Gulf of Mexico in the southeastern state of Tabasco has been closed since 4:40 p.m. on Tuesday, the port official added. Weather conditions at the port on Wednesday were waves of 10-12 ft. (3-3.5 meters), and winds of 25 mph (40 km per hour).

Mexico's Pajaritos oil port reopened to shipping on Tuesday because of improved weather, but high seas kept the port of Dos Bocas closed for a second straight day, said authorities. Dos Bocas, which has been shuttered on and off for the better part of a week, was still closed on Tuesday morning as waves crested at between seven and nine feet, said the Transport Ministry. The port, located in southeastern Tabasco state, reported winds were at 18 miles per hour. Pajaritos, located in the Coatzacoalcos complex in eastern Veracruz state, Cayo Arcas port in southeastern Campeche state and Salina Cruz in southern Oaxaca state were all operating normally, the Ministry added. Dos Bocas, Pajaritos and Cayo Arcas, all located on the Gulf of Mexico side, handle the bulk of the nation's oil exports.

Two of Mexico's chief oil export ports were closed on Tuesday, Reuters reported, because of strong winds and waves in parts of the Gulf of Mexico, port officials said. The port of Dos Bocas, located in the southeastern state of Tabasco, was shuttered as seas crested at 10 ft. and winds gusted at between nine and 12 mph, said an official at the port captain's office. The Pajaritos terminal, part of the Coatzacoalcos complex in eastern Veracruz state, was also closed as waves hit 10 ft. and winds ranged from 21 to 27 mph, said a port official. The Gulf-side port of Cayo Arcas in southeastern Campeche state and the Pacific Port of Salina Cruz were operating normally, said port officials and the Transport Ministry.