Texas oil experts say Mexico's plan to halt imports won't have immediate effect

After a dramatic spike in gasoline prices incited widespread protests in Mexico last year, then-presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador made a promise that caught the attention of Texas officials and the state’s oil and gas industry: The veteran left-wing politician vowed, if elected, to halt the import of gasoline and diesel from the United States and other countries by 2021.

The promise — which López Obrador had previously mentioned and which he reiterated one week after winning in a historic landslide last month — was a key component of his national development platform in his third run for the presidency.

During the race, he vowed to reverse policies pursued by his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto, that made the country more reliant on the international gasoline market prices. He told supporters it would result in cheaper and more dependable fuel.

"Refineries will be built, gas extraction will be promoted, and the electric industry will be strengthened," López Obrador said in November 2016, more than a year and a half before the July 1 election. "All this to stop buying gasoline and other fuels abroad."

Read more: https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/2018/08/16/mexicos-plan-halt-oil-imports-wont-have-immediate-effect-texas/1010087002/