Argus Mexican Refined Products Markets

An accomplished oil and gas executive with extensive knowledge of the Mexican oil and gas market and over twenty years´ experience in the international supply & trading of LPG and products into Mexico, including the design of hedging strategies of crude oil and refined products using financial derivatives, while working at PMI, PEMEX International Branch. Since 2016, Lorena is Director General for Oil Products at the Mexican Ministry of Energy. Read less

Jerry C. Phillips is Manager of Global Market Analysis for Phillips 66. Phillips has over 36 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, with over 27 years with Phillips. Before joining Phillips 66 in May 2012, Phillips worked in various commercial roles for ConocoPhillips, including Supply Director of US Clean Products and Director of US Exchanges. Phillips began his Phillips career in 1991 in Conoco’s Corpus Christi Exploration and Production organization. Previous roles at various energy companies included Vice President, land lease acquisitions and natural gas trading. Phillips earned a bachelor’s degree in business with honors from The University of Texas at Austin in 1982. Phillips also holds a US patent for business processes. Read less

Dan Pourreau is the Technical Director of ACELA, the American Association of Fuel Ether Producers, and a Senior Technical Service Manager at Lyondell Chemical where he has worked for 27 years. He started his career as a research chemist with AMOCO Chemical in 1987 and moved on to ARCO Chemical, one of Lyondell’s predecessor companies in 1991. He has held numerous positions in Research and Development, Business Development, Technical Services, and Planning and Analysis since joining Lyondell and ARCO. After completing a Baccalaureate in France where he grew up, Dan moved to the US to continue his education. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Wooster in Ohio, a Masters from Northwestern, and a PhD in Chemistry from Penn State University. He has co-authored 15 US patents and 18 scientific publications on topics ranging from graffiti removal to the use of lasers to study ultra-fast chemical reactions. He moved from Philadelphia to the Houston area with his family 6 years ago and two of his three sons are University of Houston graduates. In his role as ACELA Technical Director, Dan has been advising the Mexican Commission on Energy Regulation and other stakeholders on the impact of various regulatory options on air quality and market competitiveness. Today, his presentation will cover the global market dynamics for MTBE and fuel ethers and the most recent developments in Mexico. Please welcome Dan Pourreau. Read less

Jennifer Fussell currently serves as the Assistant Vice President Sales and Marketing Petroleum and Chemicals in Houston TX at Kansas City Southern. She also holds responsibility for the commercial relationships between Kansas City Southern and the gulf coast ports. She first joined KCS in 1998 as a rail operation clerk in Shreveport LA. Through her 18 years with the Kansas City Southern she has contributed in both commercial and operating management positions as Assistant Director of Customer Service, Assistant Director of Service Design and Measurement, and Director Sales and Marketing throughout the network in Louisiana, Texas, and Kansas City, MO. Jennifer also serves on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Association of Rail Shippers since 2011. She was named “SWARS Person of the Year” for 2015. Southwest Association of Rail Shippers is a non-profit association which provides an open forum for railroads and shippers to meet and discuss matters of mutual interest. The region includes the greater southwest territory including Mexico. Read less

Jarl Pedersen is the Chief Commercial Officer for the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, where he is charting and directing one of the largest energy ports towards the future. He is devising strategies relating to development and marketing the port, while cultivating long lasting relationships with major customers. Most recently, Mr. Pedersen served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for NEST of Norway where he was responsible for global market strategy and commercialization of an innovative thermal energy storage technology. Prior to that he served as Vice President of International Business Development for Xtreme Power in Austin, where he generated a pipeline of business development opportunities for battery energy storage systems for renewable energy integration. Prior to that Mr. Pedersen was Director of Business Development with Shell Energy North America in Houston, where he was responsible for structured transactions, business development and asset marketing of Shell’s natural gas fired power portfolio in North America. Mr. Pedersen serves as an advisory member to the City of Corpus Christi Transportation Advisory Commission. He also serves on the Advisory Council for the City of Corpus Christi Downtown Management District, and the College and Career Advisory Council for the Calallen Independent School District. Mr. Pedersen earned his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Energy Systems from the Technical University of Denmark, a Bachelor of Commerce degree in International Business and Trade from the Copenhagen Business School and completed the Executive Program in Management from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California Los Angeles. Read less

Uriel has worked for Grupo Hermes since 2006 and was appointed as CEO in March 2017. In May 2018, he was appointed National Secretary for Hydrocarbons at the National Chamber of Freight Transport. Read less

Michael Moss has more than 15 years of management and business development experience. He has overseen large international energy projects in Mexico, Latin America and Papua New Guinea. Mr. Moss most recently served as corporate director for social responsibility at Occidental Petroleum Company, where he oversaw the development of the company’s social responsibility strategy. He also managed business unit and business development support, as well as internal and external program communications and education. Prior to working for Occidental, Mr. Moss worked as the lead for upstream business development at ExxonMobil Development Company. He held previous positions as Chief Operating Officer for Energy Maintenance Services in Mexico and Latin America and Vice President of Latin American Operations for URS/Dames & Moore. Mr. Moss holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, a Juris Doctor and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Missouri. Read less

Alfonso Martin-Fernandez counts with more than 12 years of experience trading and analyzing global financial markets. Currently he is a Vice President on Bank of America Merrill Lynch oil trading desk in NY. He currently focuses on generating fundamental analysis for the desk and leading the energy business development effort in Mexico and Latin America. He is been extremely involved on the recent energy reform in Mexico over the last few years he and actively works on commodity risk management solution with several clients in the region. Prior to BAML, he worked at Barclays commodities desk trading different parts of the barrel and at Banco de Mexico Central Bank operation division where he held different roles managing the international reserves portfolio worth more than $100 billion focusing on FX, Fixed Income and Commodities. He holds a BA in economics from ITAM and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Read less

Santiago joined Ritch Mueller as a partner in 2017. Previously, Santiago was based out of the Houston office of Ernst & Young LLP in the international tax practice (Latin American Business Center) for almost three years. Santiago was also member of the team that lead the efforts of Ernst & Young LLP towards investment projects in Mexico derived from the recent Energy Reform. Before joining Ernst & Young LLP, Santiago worked in two well-known tax and legal advisory firms in Mexico City as senior associate in the tax consulting and transfer pricing practice areas. Santiago has provided tax advice to local and multinational companies engaged in different sectors, such as energy, real estate, financial services, manufacturing, among others. Santiago obtained a BS in Accounting from the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City as well as a Masters in Tax Law from the same university. Read less

John is the Vice President of Business Development for Sky Eye Measurement Inc. and has over 25 years of experience in the North American Oil and Gas Sector. His focus is the Instrumentation, Automation and Measurement within Terminal Transloading facilities. He has held Technical and Management positions for Apache Canada, Weatherford Canada, Tarpon Energy, and Secure Energy Services prior to Sky Eye Measurement. John is a founding Board Member of the CORE “Commodities on Rail Enterprises” and serves as the Director of Technology. He is also active member of the IMG “Industry Measurement Group” serving on the Custody Transfer Sampling IRP committee reporting into the AER. John works with Clients and Regulators throughout Canada, the US and Mexico during the design, installation, and operation of terminal facilities handling Crude Oils, Condensates, LPG’s, and Refined Products. Read less

Dr. Ian Ralby is a recognized expert in maritime law, international security, and illicit hydrocarbons activity. He focuses on matters at the intersection of law, security and policy in countries and regions around the globe, working with governments and international organizations and multinational companies to develop functional, cooperative approaches to confronting an array of challenges that pose a threat to security, stability and prosperity. Emanating from his work relating to the hijacking of tankers and illicit bunkering in the Gulf of Guinea, Dr. Ralby and his team at I.R. Consilium led, on behalf of the Atlantic Council, the largest study ever published on Downstream Oil Theft. Most recently, Dr. Ralby and his team produced the leading report on illicit hydrocarbons activity in the maritime domain. In addition to his work as CEO of I.R. Consilium, he is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, an Adjunct Professor of Maritime Law and Security at the US Department of Defense's Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Maritime Crime Expert for UNODC’s Global Maritime Crime Programme, a "Key Opinion Former on Maritime Security" at NATO and an expert consultant for various international organizations. He is currently working with shipowners on a variety of challenges related to MARPOL and recently led the drafting for the UN’s manual on fuel crimes in the maritime domain. He frequently publishes and speaks on matters relating to international affairs and various aspects of law and security. Dr. Ralby has a BA in Modern Languages and Linguistics and an MA in Intercultural Communication from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; a JD from William & Mary Law School, where he was a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar; and both an MPhil. and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. Read less

Luis Xavier Alemán is Managing Director of Mexico for Cargill Risk Management. He joined Cargill’s corporate strategy group in Minneapolis in 2006, and in 2013 he started the Mexico City office for Cargill Risk Management. Based in Houston, he leads Cargill Risk Management activities in Mexico for agriculture, foreign exchange and energy, and helps companies throughout Latin America manage financial risk. He studied electrical engineering at Purdue University and received his MBA from Kellogg School of Management. He also received his Master of Engineering Management from McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. In his free time, he enjoys exercising, hiking outdoors, windsurfing and playing racquet sports. Read less

Francisco Xavier Salazar Díez de Sollano is a founding partner at Trust Inteligencia de Entorno, SC, and Enix, SC. Trust is a Mexican consulting firm specialized in socio political risk management for the industry while Enix is specialized in energy regulation. He is also the Coordinator of the International Confederation of Regulators (ICER). In 2016, he was appointed as the first “Institute of the Americas Regional Energy Integration Non-Resident Fellow” and as executive fellow at the School of Public Policy of the University of Calgary. During 2015-2017, he was Chair of the Mexican Chapter of the World Energy Council (WEC). In 2017 he became a member of COMEXI, the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations From 2005 to 2015, he served as Chairman of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) time during which he was an active promoter of energy reform in Mexico. During 2011-2015 he chaired the Ibero-American Energy Regulators Association (ARIAE). Prior to being a regulator, he was a congressman for two terms. In Congress he served as a Chairman of the Energy Committee at the Chamber of Deputies. At the beginning of his professional career, he also was involved in the Chemical Sector. Mr. Salazar holds an MSc in Public Financial Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi, and Diploma studies in Law and Economics from other universities. He has taught courses on Public Finance and Monetary Economics at local universities in San Luis Potosi, and written on the use of economic instruments in environmental public policy, as well as on energy policy and regulation. Mr. Salazar has also participated as member of editorial boards from major newspapers and business magazines in Mexico. Read less

Carla Bass edits the award-winning Argus Mexico Fuel Markets. She manages the contributions of journalists and market reporters toward producing this daily publication that has covered every facet of Mexico’s downstream markets since January 2017. She began covering energy news in Ecuador, and wrote for publications including The Economist and the Miami Herald. She later worked in Washington DC and Houston as a real-time energy news editor before joining Argus. Read less

David Ruisard has been the US Products editor with Argus for 5 years. From gasoline to residual fuel oil to distillates to crude oil, David has extensive experience in the US markets. He first became a market reporter when he joined Platts in 2001 as their US Gulf coast gasoline and distillates reporter. Before the oil markets, David was an award winning news reporter and is a proud graduate of Baylor University. Read less

Mark Babineck is Argus Media’s bureau chief in Houston, with managerial responsibility over several of the desks based at the company’s Americas headquarters office. Previously, he was editor of Argus Petroleum Transportation North America, a weekly publication that launched in September 2012, and has been with Argus Media for eight years, having also been a senior reporter and an assistant news editor. Prior to joining Argus, Mark was an assistant state editor and an assistant business editor and part of the Houston Chronicle’s coverage team of the climactic Enron criminal trials. Mark spent about 10 years as a reporter with the Associated Press, covering news, sports and business around the state of Texas, and a year after that covering crude markets and general news at Reuters. Mark is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is a native Houstonian who remains in the city with his wife, Susan, and two children. Read less