The Mexican government launched a quest against foreign oil companies operating in the country pretty much from day one in office. First, it suspended new oil and gas auctions and began a review of the contracts signed by the previous government as it searches for evidence of corruption. Then, it proposed law after law to expand the clout of state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) on the local market at the expense of private companies. Now, the government has awarded Pemex operatorship of the biggest private discovery of oil in Mexico. The Zama field, in the Campeche offshore basin, was discovered by a private consortium led by U.S. Talos Energy in 2015. With reserves estimated at 670 million barrels of recoverable crude, the discovery was the largest in Mexico made by a private company for decades. Yet there was a problem with this field – it extended into a neighboring one […]