Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel made the announcement earlier this week. Dr. Kessel said that bidding for ethanol required for use in the city of Monterrey and the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City—626 million liters (165.4 million gallons US) per year—will be conducted once the results of the initial call for the Guadalajara region are known.

Pemex concluded a test-run of ethanol blending last month in Monterrey, in which 151,600 liters (40,048 gallons US) of sugarcane-based ethanol were added to gasoline at service stations and a total of 2.53 million liters (668,355 gallons US) sold.