CRE Requires Foreign Labs to Register for Fuel Certification

Foreign laboratories issuing quality certificates for automotive fuels according to NOM-016 must register with CRE. Foreign entities can obtain their registration as testing laboratories with the commission, in accordance with Agreement A/60/2024, recently published in the Official Journal of the Federation (DOF).

Laboratories already registered with the Ministry of Economy must submit their registration to the CRE within 90 calendar days. The commission justifies this measure as a means to ensure and expedite the entry of oil products into the country.

The document states that any foreign entity interested in registering its testing laboratory with CRE to issue quality certificates, result reports, or legal and technical documents similar to the Mexican Official Standard NOM-016-CRE-2016 must meet the specified requirements. According to the Agreement, CRE’s Hydrocarbons Unit will grant a three-year registration to laboratories whose result reports are aligned with a conformity assessment equivalent to the NOM-016-CRE-2016, which details quality specifications for oil products.

Among the registration requirements, regulated by CRE under the leadership of Commissioner Leopoldo Melchi, the laboratory applicant must be certified by an accreditation body that is a signatory to the Mutual Recognition Arrangement for Testing Laboratories, belonging to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, the Asia-Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation, or other agreements in which Mexico participates.

The accreditation must be based on the Mexican Standard NMX-EC-17025-IMNC-2018, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, or its successor, in accordance with the International Standard ISO/IEC 17025:2018, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. Additionally, the laboratory must have the technical scope for testing methods (ASTM) indicated in NOM-016-CRE-2016, and submit the accredited methods for each type of petroleum product in both physical and electronic formats.