Category: Mexico

Pemex said Monday it has planned "additional volumes of gasoline imports in order to regularize supplies" in several states following what one analyst described as a "perfect storm" of shortages involving red tape and crime. The state company traditionally prides itself in ensuring supplies of all fuels to industry and consumers. But long lines have formed in recent weeks at the pumps of the service stations that still have gasoline on sale. The problems have arisen in at least half a dozen states, though not in Mexico City, with its population of 20 million. Pemex cited several factors for the shortages, including a new billing system that has failed to register the orders made by service stations for new supplies. Another reason, in the area around the northern industrial capital of Monterrey, is that the Cadereyta refinery there is undergoing major maintenance. And in northern border states as Coahuila, […]

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On June 22, Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) announced it would tender a new round of 24 energy infrastructure projects totaling $10 billion, including a $3 billion underwater pipeline bringing U.S. natural gas from Texas to Tuxpan, Veracruz. Amidst a grand national “gasification” strategy that has promoted Mexican imports of U.S. natural gas, this may be one of the most ambitious projects yet. Of course there are concerns around potential risks associated with the project – whether there is the local capacity to carry it out, and whether it’s really necessary – all of which must be resolved if the pipeline is to begin transporting the proposed 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2018. As for financing and construction of the Texas–Tuxpan subsea pipeline there are several options. In the case of previous tenders, interest has come from well-established U.S. companies such as Sempra’s IEnova, […]

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MEXICO CITY—State-owned Petróleos Mexicanos is in advanced talks with Mexico’s powerful oil workers union to lower labor costs via a pension overhaul and for more flexible work rules to secure its future in a newly competitive environment, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Success in renegotiating the collective bargaining agreement at Mexico’s biggest company by sales and staff could determine how well Pemex performs now that oil prices are low and the former energy monopoly faces private-sector competition for the first time, analysts say. Moreover, the Mexican government has said it would assume a significant portion of Pemex’s $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities if the current system is successfully changed. “If they finally agree on these changes, it would be the most important step Pemex can take to guarantee it remains a dominant and competitive player in the long run,” said Leo Zuckermann, political analyst at the […]

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The Mexican state oil company Pemex has announced one of its biggest discoveries in years, unveiling new shallow water oil fields in the southern Gulf of Mexico that it says could produce 200,000 barrels per day by mid-2018. The total proven, probable and possible reserves of the fields could be as high as 350m barrels of crude-oil equivalent, said Pemex’s chief executive officer, Emilio Lozoya. The new fields off the coast of Tabasco and Campeche states comprised three of light crude and one of heavy crude, and could start coming onstream in 16 months, Pemex said. “It’s a recent achievement and one of great magnitude,” Lozoya said. The fields would take around three years to reach their full 200,000 barrel per day capacity, said Jose Antonio Escalera, director of exploration for Pemex. Pemex described the finds as its biggest exploration success in the last five years after the discoveries […]

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The historic end of Mexico’s state monopoly on energy could spark more integration with U.S. power utilities than the much hyped opening of the country’s oil industry, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. The focus of Mexico’s energy overhaul “is typically on the hydrocarbons but in fact the most consequential part for further energy integration may very well be electricity,” Moniz said in an interview during the Clean Energy Ministerial conference in Merida, Mexico, on Wednesday. “American companies will clearly be coming in, and we will also see Mexican companies in the U.S.” Mexico ended the monopolies to allow foreign energy companies to operate in the country for the first time in more than seven decades. The move will enable further integration with U.S. utilities and natural gas pipelines across the border, much like links between the U.S. and Canadian gas and electricity markets, Moniz said. “Presumably we will […]

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MEXICO CITY—National oil company Petróleos Mexicanos suffered a short-term drop in oil production from an April accident at a Gulf of Mexico processing platform, but is ramping output back up and expects to meet its 2015 goal of 2.29 million barrels of oil a day on average, a company official said. Exploration and production chief Gustavo Hernández said on a conference call Thursday that the April 1 accident at the Abkatun oil and gas processing complex in the southern Gulf shut in some production, as did a series of storms in early January, but Pemex expects to pick up the pace in coming months. Four workers died in the explosion and fire at the Abkatun platform, and three workers are still missing, Mr. Hernández said. So far this year, Pemex has averaged crude-oil production of about 2.27 million barrels a day, with the most recent April 1-26 period just […]

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MEXICO CITY—It has been eight months since national oil firm Petróleos Mexicanos applied for a permit to buy U.S. light oil in a swap for Mexico’s heavier blend, but the company says it is confident it will get U.S. Commerce Department approval and isn’t looking to alternative sellers, a senior Pemex official said. “The signs are positive,” said José Manuel Carrera, head of Pemex’s commercial arm PMI. “We continue to be respectful, but always very insistent that this happens as soon as possible,” he said in an interview last week. The U.S. maintains a ban on crude-oil exports dating back to the 1970s, but swaps are allowed when exports are balanced by additional imports. And while both the U.S. and Canada allow swaps, the subject is politically sensitive given how dependent the U.S. has been on massive oil imports in the recent past. There is little precedent to measure […]

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HOUSTON, Apr. 23 OGJ Staff Writer Chief executives of Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and Argentina’s YPF SA are both seeing energy reforms within their respective countries, and both emphasize the need for investment from international oil and gas companies to achieve their new goals. “Pemex is transforming itself from a government organization to an enterprise” and is tasked with the new challenge and luxury of financial autonomy, explained Emilio Lozoya Austin, the company’s chief executive officer, at IHS CERAWeek on Apr. 21 in Houston. Four new agencies and five new spinoff companies have been created in Mexico over the past year, including transportation and services companies that will serve international participants following their entrance into the country ( OGJ Online, Aug. 21, 2014 ). Over the next year, the biggest steps forward will come through partnerships created with international companies in the Round One bid round and ensuring contracts […]

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Oil production at Pemex has touched bottom after a decade of decline, according to the head of exploration and production at Mexico’s state-controlled energy group, and a new era of deals with private companies should fuel its recovery. “Things are looking good,” Gustavo Hernández told the Financial Times in an interview, just weeks before the first contracts with private operators are due to be unveiled on May 13. The statement may sound rash — output at what has been Mexico’s sole hydrocarbons producer for nearly 80 years has been sinking inexorably since 2004, when the giant shallow-water Cantarell field was at its height, and the company has already cut its 2015 production forecast once this year. Furthermore, Pemex, the main contributor to the federal budget, is shouldering the brunt of public sector cuts in a government austerity drive as it seeks savings of some $4bn this year. The latest […]

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MEXICO CITY—An expected wave of international geological firms set to scan Mexico’s oil patch for oil and gas reserves will give the country a clearer picture of its riches, the nation’s top energy regulator said Monday in an interview. In the wake of Mexico opening its energy sector to foreign companies, the National Hydrocarbons Commission has about two dozen companies requesting permission to conduct surface exploration , such as seismic studies that can reveal oil and gas deposits below the ocean floor or in onshore areas. Those companies can use newer technologies and provide a greater number of scans that Mexico has used in the past, giving a clearer picture of the potential reserves. Some of those firms are expected to be cleared for exploration in coming weeks, in addition to four Norwegian companies that were cleared last week to cover nearly one-million square kilometers in the Gulf of […]

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