US independent refiner Phillips 66 opened a commercial office in Bogota, Colombia, this month, its first in Latin America, as the region becomes an important source of crude feedstocks and buyer of finished products.
"We wanted to make sure we are well positioned to get the right crude for our crude slate globally," senior vice president of commercial Mark Hughes told Argus in an exclusive interview at the company's headquarters in Houston, Texas. "We want relationships all the way from the wellhead to the customer".
He pointed to growing crude production in Venezuela, Argentina and Guyana as well as the need to be closer to customers and develop more real-time connections.
Phillips 66's Bogota office will start with a headcount in the single digits with potential for expansion.
The new office is part of a buildout of the refiner's commercial operations beyond Houston, Texas, which now includes offices in Calgary, Alberta; Hamburg, Germany; Beijing, China; Singapore and London.
Phillips 66 owns and operates eight US oil refineries with a total capacity of about 1.7mn b/d as well as the 50,000 b/d Rodeo biofuel facility in California. The company also owns the 220,000 b/d Humber refinery in the UK, and a large US midstream business that includes crude, products, natural gas and natural gas liquids assets.
The company added more power and natural gas trading staff when it completed the purchase of DCP Midstream in 2023.
In Latin America, Phillips 66 is focused on opportunities to source different kinds of crude as well as some biofuel feedstocks, including tallow, soybean oil and used cooking oil.
In addition, "the specs and the demand profile" in the northern part of the South American continent are a very good fit for the products Phillips 66 produces, vice president of origination Daniel O'Donnell said.
Phillips 66's decision to open the Bogota office was not directly a result of changes in Venezuela earlier this year, but the opportunities in that country are a factor, he said.
The real driver for Colombia is about having a presence in the region and being closer to customers and counterparties that Phillips 66 is working with, O'Donnell said. "Venezuela is certainly part of that".
Overall US imports of Venezuelan crude have risen sharply since the US captured former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in early January and then lifted sanctions on that country's crude exports.
Phillips 66's Gulf coast refineries can run up to 250,000 b/d of Venezuelan crude in its system. In August it was the third top US recipient of Venezuelan crude with 98,000 b/d, according to the latest monthly data from the US Energy Information Administration.
Freight dynamics
Phillips 66 and other US refiners are benefiting from lower priced heavy sour crudes like Venezuelan oil, adding to already robust quarterly earnings as fuel prices have surged mainly because of supply disruptions related to the US-Iran war.
Venezuelan crude is currently competing with Western Canadian Select (WCS) which is trading at multi-year discounts to the WTI benchmark, pressured by high global freight rates and other factors.
"As long as the freight dynamic remains where it is, I think you'll continue to see weakness in the general heavy complex on the Gulf coast", which gives an advantage to Phillips 66's Gulf coast and midcontinent refineries, Hughes said.
US refiners have been running at high rates this year to fill the global supply gaps left by what was a de facto closure of the strait of Hormuz, taking advantage of the high prices and reporting bumper profits.
Phillips 66 reported refining margins of $38/bl in the third quarter, up from $12.15/bl in the third quarter of 2025.
Another major US energy company, Chevron, announced plans to invest more than $100mn in Colombia over the coming years as it expands its downstream brand Texaco and terminal storage capacities.
The capital injection will focus on upgrading fuel storage infrastructure, expanding the retail network by adding more than 200 service stations in key cities and optimizing logistics across strategic hubs.
Phillips 66 and Chevron are co-owners of Chevron Phillips Chemical, a 50:50 joint venture.
