Editor’s Note: NGI’s Mexico Gas Price Index, a leader tracking Mexico natural gas market reform, is offering the following question-and-answer (Q&A) column as part of a regular interview series with experts in the Mexican natural gas market.

NGI: How do you see the evolution of the Mexican natural gas market and developments in recent years?

Salazar: I see it the following way. When I was in the CRE we started to analyze how to do all the regulation for the distinct markets whose regulation corresponded to the CRE, including new and existing ones. We worked under a concept that analyzed maturity in the market. We talked about how there are four stages in the distinct markets in the energy industry. The markets are: New-born/nascent market, emerging markets, markets in transition and the mature markets.

In the case of natural gas, my opinion is that if you look at all the facets of the natural gas sector — distribution, transport, sales — it is an emerging market that has moved into a transition market.

What are the characteristics of all of these markets? The nascent market is the one that didn’t exist before the energy reform. There weren’t participants, there wasn’t basic infrastructure in place. That clearly isn’t the current state of the Mexican natural gas market.