First waterborne fuel delivery from Corpus to Mexico

​​CORPUS CHRISTI – A Koch Industries subsidiary has opened a new fuel export route from Corpus Christi to Mexico without involving Mexico’s national oil company.

Koch Supply & Trading, which is part of the Koch brothers private business empire, calls it thefirst waterborne delivery of motor vehicle fuel into Mexico by private parties since the Mexican petroleum industry was nationalized nearly 80 years ago.

The route goes from Koch’s Flint Hills Resources refining system in Corpus Christi through the Port of Veracruz to a newly revamped terminal owned and operated by Dutch-based Royal Vopak, which obtained the first regulatory approval for an independent party to store and handle petroleum liquids in Mexico.

The first cargo was for ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel.

Koch said it can deliver to Mexico much earlier through the Vopak deal than by going through the extended process of permitting and building its own terminal.