Royal Dutch Shell will begin importing fuel into Mexico via land and sea routes this year to supply its gas stations across the country.

Murray Fonseca, Shell’s Latin America sales director, told the news agency Notimex that the company will start bringing gasoline into the country by rail before the middle of the year and that deliveries by ship are expected to begin in the second half of the year.

Fonseca said that Shell has 31 oil refineries around the world as well as its own storage facilities and means of transport

“. . .  We seek to integrate [our operations] and that’s what we’ll do in Mexico at some point,” he said.

Shell has been operating in Mexico since September 2017 but selling gasoline supplied by Pemex.

In addition to bringing its own fuel into the country, Shell plans to open another 100 to 200 gas stations in Mexico before the end of the year to take its total number of outlets to between 300 and 400.

Both company-owned gas stations and franchises will be among the new openings.

Fonseca said that Shell’s sales in the 11 Mexican states where it operates have increased and that the entry of the new federal government hasn’t had any effect of the company’s expansion plans.

“We’re still very interested in Mexico, it continues to be a very important country [for Shell] . . .  We’ve said that we’re going to invest more than US $1 billion in the next 10 years if conditions are maintained.”

Source: Notimex (sp)