By Stefanie Eschenbacher

MEXICO CITY/HOUSTON – A lawsuit was filed in the United States by two New York-based businessmen seeking to prevent Petroleos Mexicanos (Mexico’s State Oil Company) from taking control over a Texas oil refinery. The suit claimed that this would cause an increase in gasoline prices.

Royal Dutch Shell, (LON:), in May, agreed to transfer its majority interest in the Deer Park, Texas, refinery (302,800 barrels/day (bpd), Deer Park, to Pemex (its long-standing partner) for approximately $596m.

Last week’s lawsuit in Houston was filed at a U.S. District Court. The suit claims that the sale would cause “substantially less competition in gasoline” and “significantly raise” plaintiffs energy costs. The court was asked to block permanent the sale of Pemex or to force it to sell its assets.

CFIUS, which is a U.S. national security agency that can restrict or block foreign acquisitions of U.S. business entities, has delayed the transaction. Pemex had planned to close the sale in this year’s final 45-day period, but that was stopped by CFIUS.

Pemex and the CFIUS spokespeople, as did the U.S. Treasury Department which is the chair of the CFIUS. Shell declined to comment.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Mexican president has stated that the agreement would bring Mexico closer to self-sufficiency in energy. He pledged to reduce imports of fuel by producing more in Mexico. Mexico imports 60% of its motor gasoline needs each year. Lopez Obrador claimed that Mexico’s 28-year old joint venture with Shell has been a failure because dividends are not being repatriated.

Aaron Hagele and Andrew Sarcinella are the owners of Mt. Vernon’s coin-operated laundry, Vernon, N.Y. filed the suit. They claimed that their business would be affected if Deer Park exports more.

Mark Lavery is an attorney representing the couple. He stated that Deer Park supplies up to 2.5% U.S.-based gasoline and that higher exports would reduce competition, which could lead to higher prices.

He said that “This is an important time in the United States gasoline market right now,” echoing the criticisms of President Joe Biden’s high gas prices.