MEXICO CITY – Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said plans for a new refinery are being held up because the two states competing to be the site of the facility have not yet secured title to the necessary land.

In a press conference on Friday, Pemex CEO Jesus Reyes Heroles said neither the authorities in Hidalgo state nor Guanajuato state – both in central Mexico – have acquired the 700 hectares (1,730 acres) needed for the refinery.

The Hidalgo town of Tula had been selected in April as the site for the $10 billion refinery, but now that a 100-day period to acquire the land from local landowners has expired Pemex says the facility could now be built in the Guanajuato city of Salamanca.

The winner will be the first state to show documentary proof “over the next few months” that it acquired sufficient land for the plant, Reyes Heroles said.

Guanajuato is governed by the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, while Hidalgo’s governor is a member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The Hidalgo authorities need 837 small owners to agree to sell their land, while in Guanajuato there are two separate options involving fewer landowners – 211 in one area and 154 in another.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Abelardo Escobar, who also took part in the press conference, said that as of Friday morning neither of the two states had delivered sufficient property titles to the national agrarian registry.

The lands acquired by the two states must subsequently be handed over to Pemex’s refining subsidiary, Pemex Refinacion.

“We’re going to put $10 billion into that land and we to be extremely careful that things are properly carried out,” Escobar added.

He ruled out the possibility that “political considerations” would be a determining factor and pledged to ensure that the process is handled in strict accordance with the law.

Reyes Heroles, for his part, said it is essential at this time to have “legal certainty regarding ownership of the lands,” adding that if the process is not carried out in compliance with the law any communal landowner could file a legal challenge against the project.

The refinery, one of Pemex’s most important projects in recent years, is scheduled to come on stream in 2015.

The new plant, which would be the first such facility built in Mexico in more than two decades, is seen as necessary to reduce the country’s dependence on imported gasoline.

Pemex also is expanding a facility in Salamanca, Guanajuato, a project that should be complete by the end of 2014.

Between them, the new refinery and the refitted Salamanca plant are expected to produce 300,000 barrels per day of gasoline, but without additional projects, Mexico, a key U.S. supplier of crude, would still have to import 500,000 bpd of fuel.