(Reuters, 3.Jun.2022) — The Mexican government is close to reaching a deal with U.S.-based Talos Energy over the future of a potentially lucrative shared crude discovery, the president said on June 3. The handling of Zama, a deposit holding some 900 million barrels and located offshore in the southern Gulf […]
Tag: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Back to Mexico’s Statist Energy Future
(Forbes, 28.Apr.2022) — An ambitious effort to definitely steer Mexico back to a statist energy future was narrowly defeated this last week, leaving its energy sector still officially open to the private sector but largely unattractive to all but the most speculative investors. More than half of Mexico’s lower chamber […]
Mexico’s Electricity Reform Draws Opposition from Investors, US
(The Washington Post, 16.Apr.2022) — Mexico’s congress will decide on Sunday whether to give the government near-total control over the country’s electricity sector in what analysts consider one of the biggest threats to the country’s private sector in years, moving away from the production of clean energy, jeopardizing foreign investment […]
Mexico’s President Reversing Energy Reforms, Hurting Oil Production
(Houston Public Media, 12.Apr.2022) — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is using administrative measures to undermine the free-market reforms enacted in 2013. As a result, Mexican oil production is now more than 1 million barrels short of where the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected it would be if the reforms […]
NRGBriefs: Mexicans Back Recall Vote; Neuquén Officials on Houston Roadshow
(Energy Analytics Institute, 11.Apr.2022) — Energy briefs including approximately 90% of Mexican citizens voting this past weekend to back a recall election that would allow President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to stay in office; Argentina is looking to significantly boost oil and gas production by 2030, Argentina’s governor of Neuquén […]
Pemex Back In Red Despite Oil Production Uptick
(Reuters, 28.Oct.2021) — Higher tax payments and foreign exchange losses pushed Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos back into the red in the third quarter, even as crude production recovered somewhat, the state oil company said on Thursday. Pemex lost 62.8 billion pesos ($3 billion) compared to a profit of 1.4 billion pesos […]
Pemex Swings To $3.8bn Loss In Third Quarter
(Ft.com, 28.Oct.2021) — Mexico’s state oil company reported a 77.2bn peso ($3.8bn) loss in the third quarter of the year because of a higher tax burden and large foreign exchange losses from a weaker peso. That followed a profit of 1.4bn pesos in the year-ago quarter. Pemex on Thursday revealed total crude […]
Mexico Lowers Pemex Tax Burden
(S&P Global Platts, 28.Oct.2021) — The Mexican government has reduced the tax rate that state oil company Pemex will pay in 2022 to 40% from 54% currently, which could help it achieve its goals of producing a little over 2 million b/d by the end of the administration’s term. The […]
Mexico’s Government To Assume Pemex’s Debt Payments
(Bloomberg, 28.Oct.2021) — Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the great champion of his beloved but beleaguered state-owned oil giant, may be making his boldest move yet to keep it afloat. Petroleos Mexicanos chief Octavio Romero told lawmakers Wednesday that AMLO, as the president is known, has instructed the company […]
Mexico Moves To Re-Nationalize Energy Markets
(Forbes, 28.Oct.2021) — Recent moves by Mexico’s government targeting the country’s energy industry have led to increasing concerns that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) intends to ultimately re-nationalize the nation’s entire energy sector. This happened once before in 1938 and has never served Mexico’s national interest well, a reality […]
Mexico Presents Plan To Shutter Private Power Plants
(AP, 11.Oct.2021) — Mexico’s president presented details on Monday of a proposal that is likely to squeeze out hundreds of private power generating plants and may provoke complaints under the Mexico-U.S.-Canada free trade accord. The constitutional reform presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would cancel contracts under which 34 […]
NRGBriefs: Blinken Visits Lopez Obrador In CDMX
(Energy Analytics Institute, 8.Oct.2021) — Energy briefs including US secretary of state Antony Blinken visiting Mexico City for the US-Mexico high-level security dialogue; Petrobras planning to boost petrol and cooking gas prices; Great Panther Mining Limited reporting production results in Brazil and Mexico; and more. LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN Brazil […]
Pro-Pemex Bill Clears Mexico’s Lower House
(Bloomberg, 22.Apr.2021) — Mexico’s lower house of congress on Wednesday approved a reform to the country’s hydrocarbon law that removes one of the linchpins to promote private competition against state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos. The lower house voted 301 in favor, 147 against and two abstentions to approve the proposal, which eliminates […]
How Pemex’s Wings Got Clipped
(Reuters, 30.Mar.2021) — Shortly before taking office late in 2018, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador vowed to boost crude oil production at Mexican giant Pemex by nearly half, following more than a dozen years of decline. The ambitious goal of increasing the state-run company’s oil output from 1.8 million barrels […]
Lopez Obrador Eyes Oil Permits
(Reuters, 26.Mar.2021) — Lopez Obrador argues previous administrations skewed the energy market in favor of business interests and were intent on carving up national oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and power utility the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). His new initiative, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, set […]
Mexico Seeks Better Terms From Vitol
(Reuters, 22.Mar.2021) — Mexico is looking to renegotiate some of its hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of contracts with Vitol SA after the global energy trader acknowledged paying kickbacks to win business with state oil company Pemex, Reuters has learned. The dispute in Mexico, the world’s fourth-largest importer of refined […]
Mexican Electric Law Temporarily Cut
(Argus, 11.Mar.2021) — A court temporarily suspended Mexico’s new electricity law yesterday, a day after it took effect, signaling the start of a wave of litigation against the controversial reform. “While this interim relief was requested by one company, it will have general effect,” stated a Mexico City court judgment […]
Mexico Looks to Strengthen Energy Sector
(Energy Analytics Institute, 18.Feb.2021) — Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the recent Texas freeze that saw many residents in the state lose power and water service, demonstrated why his country needed to strengthen its energy sector. Highlights: The Texas storm that commenced Friday night 12 February 2021 froze […]
Mexico Presses US To Guarantee Gas Supplies
(Reuters, 17.Feb.2021) — The Mexican government called the top U.S. representative in Mexico on Wednesday to press for natural gas supplies after the Texas governor ordered fuel to remain in the state during a freeze that has overwhelmed its energy grid. Already, earlier this week, natural gas supplies to Mexico […]
Mexican President Wants To Dissolve Energy Regulators
(Argus, 8.Jan.2021) — Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador plans to dissolve Mexico’s independent energy, telecommunications and competition regulators, incorporating them into government ministries. “These organizations have only served as smoke screens for illicit activity and hiding information … they cost a lot, do not work and do not benefit […]
AMLO’s Nationalism Casts Energy Projects Into Limbo
(Bloomberg, 22.Dec.2020) — Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s hardball tactics against foreign energy companies are halting projects and reversing a process that until recently made the country one of the world’s hottest oil and renewable markets. About 200 wind farms, natural gas plants, solar arrays and other projects have […]
Mexico Wins Over $2bn On Oil Hedge
(Bloomberg, 1.Dec.2020) — Mexico will cash in its oil price insurance policy this year for the fourth time only in the last two decades, receiving a payout of about $2.5 billion from its 2020 sovereign oil hedge, people familiar with the transaction said. In an ironic turn of events, Mexico […]
Mexico to Give Sempra LNG Export Permit
(Reuters, 13.Nov.2020) — Mexico will give the local unit of U.S.-based Sempra Energy an export permit for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in northwest Mexico, as long as the company helps offset an oversupply of gas in the area, the president said on Friday. San Diego-based Sempra has previously […]
Latin America Peers Warily Into US Election Mirror
(Argus, 30.Oct.2020) — The region’s recovery from Covid-19 will depend heavily on who is dictating US policy, writes Patricia Garip. Waves of political chaos that recurrently engulf Latin America were not supposed to wash up on stable US shores. Yet days before the 3 November election, the US is convulsed […]
Mexico Unveils Investment Plan Worth Nearly $14 bln
(Reuters, 5.Oct.2020) — Mexico’s government and business leaders on Monday presented a series of planned investments worth over 297 billion pesos ($13.83 billion) which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador hopes will help to lift the country’s misfiring economy. Ranging from highways, to a train line connecting Mexico City with the […]
Morena Seeks End To Mexico’s Energy Investment
(Argus, 15.Sep.2020) — Mexico’s ruling Morena party presented a constitutional reform proposal that would roll back the historic 2014 energy reform and seek to rescind all contracts awarded to date. “The proposal seeks to reinstate the wording prior to the energy reform and without a doubt opens the door to […]
Mexico’s Lopez Wants Plan To Execute Energy Vision
(Reuters, 11.Aug.2020) — Mexico’s president has given officials until late September to craft a plan to reassert state control over the energy industry as an alternative to constitutional change to achieve the same goals, according to three people familiar with the matter. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on July 22 […]
Mexico To Launch World’s Largest Oil Hedge – Sources
(Reuters, 24.Jul.2020) — Mexico has asked top Wall Street banks to submit quotes for its giant oil hedging program, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, while trading in crude oil options has increased this week ahead of the megadeal. The finance ministry has asked banks for price quotes, […]
Mexico’s Lopez Says He’d Sell Fuel To Venezuela
(Reuters, 15.Jun.2020) — Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday his country would, for “humanitarian” reasons, sell gasoline to Venezuela if asked to do so, despite a raft of U.S. sanctions imposed on the South American country and its state-run oil company, PDVSA. Lopez Obrador added he had […]
Power Rate Hike To Hurt Renewable Energy Firms
(Reuters, 11.Jun.2020) — An influential Mexican business lobby on Thursday warned a hike in the price that private power producers pay to access the country’s main electricity transmission grid will deal a blow to the green industry and be passed on to the consumer. Mexico’s Energy Regulation Commission, the power […]
OPEC+ To Meet Saturday On Extending Cuts
(Reuters, 5.Jun.2020) — OPEC and its allies led by Russia will meet on Saturday to discuss extending record oil production cuts and to push laggards such as Iraq and Nigeria to comply with existing curbs. The producers known as OPEC+ previously agreed to cut supply by 9.7 million barrels per […]
Energy Dispute Deepens Between In Mexico
(Reuters, 16.May.2020) — The European Union and Canada have formally raised concerns to Mexico about rules they say endanger renewable energy projects, escalating tensions with its government, which late on Friday moved to tighten its control over the power industry. In letters that were leaked to Mexican media on Friday, […]
Mexico Indefinitely Halts New Clean-Energy Plans
(Bloomberg, 2.May.2020) — Mexico’s Centro Nacional de Control de Energia (Cenace), which oversees the electrical system, indefinitely suspended critical tests for new clean-energy projects as the nation grapples with the spread of the coronavirus. Preoperative tests of intermittent power plants would be suspended along with other measures to increase the […]
Pemex To Prioritize Lower-cost Production
(Reuters, 27.Apr.2020) — Mexico’s state oil firm Pemex on Monday detailed measures aimed at mitigating the effects of a steep drop in oil prices, saying it would prioritize lower-cost production that would allow the government to comply with its “international commitments.” Petroleos Mexicanos, as the firm is formally known, detailed […]
Pemex Received First Payment From Its Hedge
(Bloomberg, 12.Mar.2020) — Petroleos Mexicanos received its first payment from its annual oil hedge, as prices fell the most in three decades amid a producer battle for market share, and the fast-spreading coronavirus. Pemex protected its 2020 oil exports at an average of $49 a barrel, receiving the first payment […]
Oil Price Plunge Ramps Up Pressure On Pemex
(Reuters, 9.Mar.2020) — A crash in crude prices has intensified pressure on the finances of Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which is facing the threat of a ratings downgrade after posting one of its worst-ever losses last year. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office 15 months […]
AMLO Says New Energy Plan Could Be Ready In March
(Reuters, 5.Mar.2020) — Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday the country’s new energy plan could be ready within 10 days, and the government was analysing proposals by the private sector for joint energy investments. Mexico has pursued a more state-led approach to the energy sector under Lopez […]
LatAmNRG Mexico Briefs: Odebrecht Contracts, FMP Transfer, Oil Slide Halted
(Energy Analytics Institute, Jared Yamin, 27.Apr.2019) — Heard on the street and LatAmNRG briefs related to Mexico reviewing Odebrecht contracts, FMP transferring 115 billion pesos to Federal Treasury and Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claiming that his government has halted the slide in the country’s crude oil production Mexico […]
Pemex Hopes Gulf Discoveries Mesh With New President’s Goals
(Houston Chronicle, Jordan Blum, 11.Oct.2018) — Leaders of Mexico’s state oil company Pemex initially feared the inevitable election of leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who spoke of rolling back the nation’s recent energy reforms and building new refineries. Now with López Obrador set to take office in two […]
AMLO Sees EOR, Pemex Farm-Outs As Key To Boosting Mexican Oil, Gas Output
(S&P Global Platts, Daniel Rodriguez, 4.Oct.2018) — Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will allow Pemex to continue farming out projects to boost oil and natural gas production from mature and aging fields, according to a senior adviser to the incoming administration. The incoming administration, in its oil production forecast […]
Mexico’s New President Should Postpone Oil Auctions: Former Pemex Official
(Reuters, Collin Eaton, 19.Sep.2018) — A former Petroleos Mexicanos board member said on Wednesday Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has enough political support to change the nation’s energy law and should postpone planned competitive oil auctions until the law is revised. Fluvio Ruiz Alarcon said, following an address at […]
AMLO Plans Massive New Oil Refinery
(OilPrice.com, Irina Slav, 5.Sep.2018) — Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has plans to build the country’s largest refinery with a capacity to produce 400,000 barrels of gasoline daily, Reuters reports, citing comments by Obrador during a meeting with businessmen in Monterrey. The refinery would cost US$8 billion to build […]
Mexico’s New President To Deal Blow To Oil Industry
(Oilprice.com, Nick Cunningham, 26.Aug.2018) — Mexico will likely halt oil auctions for at least two years, dealing a blow to its oil industry. Mexico’s president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) will reportedly suspend oil auctions for at least two years, according to the Wall Street Journal, with some experts believing […]
Gas Producers Counting on Mexico Have Worries
(Houston Chronicle, Katherine Blunt, 24.Aug.2018) — For years, U.S. producers have counted on Mexico to buy enormous quantities of natural gas from the prolific shale fields in West Texas and elsewhere. The fracking boom has given rise to massive pipeline projects to carry that gas across the border, where energy […]
Mexico’s Struggling Pemex Awaits New President’s Risky Fix
(Bloomberg, Amy Stillman, 14.Aug.2018) – By most financial measures, Mexico’s state oil company is seriously unwell. The country’s new leader is promising to revive it. But the treatment could end up killing the patient. After borrowing more than $100 billion, Petroleos Mexicanos is one of the world’s most indebted oil […]