Category: Mexico

Petroleos Mexicanos’ March oil production slid to its lowest monthly level in almost two decades after output declines accelerated at the world’s fifth-largest crude oil producer. Monthly crude production fell to 2.47 million barrels a day through March 30 as output at the company’s largest Ku-Maloob-Zapp and Cantarell fields dropped from the previous month, state-owned Pemex said today in a preliminary report. March was Mexico City-based Pemex’s smallest monthly output since October 1995 when it produced 1.898 million barrels a day. Pemex is banking on a December law change allowing foreign companies to join the energy industry to boost investment and increase national oil production to 3 million daily barrels by 2018, the government has said. The energy overhaul, which President Enrique Pena Nieto called the most important economic change in 50 years, is expected to raise as much as $30 billion a year in foreign investment, according to […]

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Mexico’s state oil monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, is aiming to keep more than four-fifths of the country’s proven and probable oil and gas reserves for its own exploitation as the government prepares to open the state-run sector to private and foreign investment for the first time in 75 years. The energy overhaul passed last year by Congress amended the constitution to allow foreign and private companies to explore for and produce oil and gas under profit-sharing and even production-sharing agreements. It marks the first opening of the state-run industry since the 1938 oil expropriation. The changes, however, give Pemex the first choice of projects that it wishes to be assigned directly under a so-called "Round Zero." The Energy Ministry said Monday that it has until Sept. 17 to decide which of the requested projects will be assigned directly to Pemex, taking into account the state company’s technical […]

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An event to celebrate the anniversary of the expropriation of Mexico’s oil industry at the Petroleos Mexicanos petrochemical complex in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, Mexico, on March 18, 2014. Close Close Open Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg An event to celebrate the anniversary of the expropriation of Mexico’s oil industry at the Petroleos Mexicanos petrochemical complex in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, Mexico, on March 18, 2014. Mexican companies are racing to be first in line to invest in the country’s energy industry even before lawmakers pass final legislation that would end a 76-year state monopoly. Alfa SAB (ALFAA) , owner of Mexico’s largest petrochemicals producer, sold $1 billion of bonds yesterday to help fund its energy business and refinance debt. State-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad plans to take advantage of the legal changes to sell natural gas, Chief Executive Officer Enrique Ochoa said at the Bloomberg Economic Summit in Mexico City yesterday. […]

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Shell said Tuesday production began at its Mars B development in the Gulf of Mexico, which should help boost regional production by 66 percent by 2016. Shell said it started production from Mars B using its Olympus platform, which the company said was its largest deep-water platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Olympus is floating in roughly 3,100 feet of water off the coast of Louisiana. Shell said the entire Mars field produced an average 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day last year. With Olympus in place, Mars field production should reach 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2016. John Hollowell, executive vice president for Shell’s deep water operations in the Americas, said in a statement Tuesday the Mars developments showcase Shell’s ongoing commitment to deep-water activity. "Olympus is the latest, successful start-up of our strong portfolio of deep-water projects, which […]

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U.S. energy companies will benefit from "abundant opportunities" as a result of Mexico’s energy reforms, a private economic analysis indicated. Mexico’s energy overhaul, approved by Congress last month, ends the monopoly of state-owned Mexican oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, and opens all segments of the energy sector to private firms for the first time in 75 years. A report by financial services firm BBVA Compass, based in Birmingham, Ala.., concluded the investment and new projects expected to flow from Mexico’s energy reforms could mean 2.5 million new jobs in Mexico by 2025. "More jobs in Mexico could potentially reduce illegal immigration," BBVA Compass economist Marcial Nava said in a webinar this week, the Houston Chronicle reports. Nava predicts the reforms will pump about $1.2 trillion to the Texas-Northern Mexico region in the next decade. "If these border towns effectively seize the […]

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U.S. energy companies will benefit from "abundant opportunities" as a result of Mexico’s energy reforms, a private economic analysis indicated. Mexico’s energy overhaul, approved by Congress last month, ends the monopoly of state-owned Mexican oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, and opens all segments of the energy sector to private firms for the first time in 75 years. A report by financial services firm BBVA Compass, based in Birmingham, Ala.., concluded the investment and new projects expected to flow from Mexico’s energy reforms could mean 2.5 million new jobs in Mexico by 2025. "More jobs in Mexico could potentially reduce illegal immigration," BBVA Compass economist Marcial Nava said in a webinar this week, the Houston Chronicle reports. Nava predicts the reforms will pump about $1.2 trillion to the Texas-Northern Mexico region in the next decade. "If these border towns effectively seize the […]

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Mexico’s state-run oil company Pemex has found light crude at its deep water Exploratus-1 well in the Perdido Fold Belt in the Gulf of Mexico, a senior company official said in an interview on Wednesday. Exploratus-1 struck light crude at a depth of approximately 3,600 meters (11,811 feet) below the sea floor, said Carlos Morales, Pemex’s exploration and production chief. Morales said the company does not yet have an estimate of the total amount of crude associated with the find.

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Mexico’s state-run oil company Pemex has found light crude at its deep water Exploratus-1 well in the Perdido Fold Belt in the Gulf of Mexico, a senior company official said in an interview on Wednesday. Exploratus-1 struck light crude at a depth of approximately 3,600 meters (11,811 feet) below the sea floor, said Carlos Morales, Pemex’s exploration and production chief. Morales said the company does not yet have an estimate of the total amount of crude associated with the find.

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Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico ’s state-owned oil company, expects to sign its first exploration and production agreements with international companies as early as year-end after Mexico ended its 75-year monopoly. Pemex, as the state oil company is known, will initially focus on mature and deep-water fields to establish the ventures, Chief Executive Officer Emilio Lozoya said today. Possible associations in the refining, transportation and petrochemical businesses can be done once congress approves the so-called secondary legislation, which is expected in April, he said. “We expect that in exploration and production, by the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015 we achieve the first investments or associations,” Lozoya said today in an interview in Davos during the World Economic Forum . “The quickest way to monetize the investments that Pemex already did in exploration is through joint ventures. This means increasing output and oil income.” President Enrique Pena Nieto ended the […]

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Oil companies from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to Chevron Corp. (CVX) will have to wait another two years before investing an estimated $20 billion in Mexico’s recently opened oil and gas industry. Foreign crude producers will be allowed to bid on fields for exploration and begin developing infrastructure and operations as soon as late next year, Deputy Energy Minister Enrique Ochoa said in an interview at the ministry in Mexico City. Prior to granting the operating licenses, the legal framework has to be determined and state oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos must select the fields it plans to continue to develop, he said. “We estimate that by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, we could be in the stage of implementation,” Ochoa said. “We must be professional and careful with the necessary institutional development prior to the following rounds.” President Enrique Pena Nieto ended the 75-year production monopoly […]

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