The opening of Petroleos Mexicanos’s first-ever gasoline station in Houston featured several cultural reminders of the company’s origins. There were mariachis dressed in traditional Charro suits, trumpet-heavy Mexican music and, of course, tacos. Quite a show for one of the world’s most indebted oil companies. Pemex, as the world’s eighth-largest oil company is known, opened the station Dec. 3 and plans to inaugurate four more this month as part of a U.S. expansion strategy. The stations are the company’s first in the U.S. and Houston was chosen for them all because of its large Latino and “specifically Mexican” population, Pemex said in a statement. The unexpected announcement of expansion into the U.S. market comes at a curious time. Pemex had its credit rating downgraded by Moody’s Investor Service on Nov. 24, is delaying payments to service providers and reported a record $10 billion loss in the third quarter. Its […]