Mexico is buying gasoline and diesel fuel from two Japanese and South Korean refiners for the first time this month, as Asian sellers seek more distant markets on rising competition and weakening demand.

Asian suppliers of diesel and gasoline have been saddled with excess supplies after China abruptly ended months of hefty imports because of heavy stockpiles after the summer Olympics. They are also looking askance at India, where Reliance Industries is expected to start up a new refinery.
Falling gasoline stocks in the US due to refinery run cuts and outages during Hurricane Gustav may have also driven Mexico to seek rare parcels from the East, traders said.
In Japan, where domestic demand is falling with unexpected haste, No. 3 refiner Idemitsu Kosan announced its first term diesel export deal in over four years with PMI Trading, trading arm of Mexico’s state oil monopoly Pemex. And South Korea’s top refiner SK Energy has sold a spot gasoline cargo to PMI for the first time ever, traders said.
The mid-September 30,000-tonne parcel of 92-octane gasoline was sold at a discount of $1.00-$2.00 a barrel to Singapore spot quotes.
 “This is the first time they are cutting a deal with the Mexican trader. Mexico is short of about 30,000 tonnes of gasoline a day,” a trading source said.