México’s gasoline station operators affiliated with the Organization of Petroleum Retailers (Onexpo) have initiated talks with investors from foreign firms regarding operating service stations in México. The foreign operators, such as Shell, BP and Satatoil are investigating into whether it would be best to establish a franchise operation or rent existing gasoline stations.
Angel Garcia Elizondo, president of Onexpo, said small gasoline operators may just want to sell their stations.
Under the energy reforms passed in December of last year, new gasoline operators may begin retail sales on January 1 of 2018.
As of now Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is the sole operator of retail gasoline stations in the country and operates 11,019 gasoline stations.
Garcia Elizondo said Onexpo has talked to investors in North America, Latin America and even Europe.
He said an open question at the present is whether the new stations would be self-serve, as is common in the United States, or full service, which is the operating model in México. He noted that studies have shown that Mexicans prefer full service.
He said he would expect to see some self-serve stations close to the border with the U.S., but is concerned about the 400,000 direct and indirect jobs in the overall sector.
(from Milenio)
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