Ronald Buchanan

Mexico not only aims to conclude its Round 2 upstream auctions with one covering nonconventional sources, but energy officials now are eyeing a Round 3 that also would include one covering shale and tight resources before the end of 2018, according to the energy secretary.

Production from Mexico’s leading principal natural gas basins — Burgos, Sabinas, Burro-Picachos and Veracruz — is at a 15-year low, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) reported this week.

Production of crude and natural gas by Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) slipped in the second quarter, but at a slower rate, the company said Thursday.

Mexico plans to offer 30 blocks for deepwater exploration in the fourth auction of the Round 2 series in what one analyst said was “an all-out effort” by the nation’s energy authorities to follow up on recent upstream auction successes as part of the 2013 energy reform.

When Brazil’s energy industry was reformed more than a decade ago, state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, aka Petrobras, raised $70 billion through an initial public offering (IPO) amid a buying frenzy in the Sao Paulo stock exchange. Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicano (Pemex) had no such luck in the country’s oil and gas reform, but the company has no plans to go it alone.

Producers that have been awarded blocks in Mexico’s historic oil and natural gas upstream auctions should not rest on their laurels, said Talos Energy LLC CEO Tim Duncan.

As Mexico’s natural gas imports from the United States grow, pent-up demand remains in parts of the country that lack the necessary pipelines, according to Marcelino Madrigal a commissioner at Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE).

In a day of tooth-and-claw bidding, a clear winner emerged Wednesday from the second and third auctions of Round Two of Mexico’s energy reform, which were dominated — for the first time — by natural gas-rich blocks.

Seven of 10 exploration blocks found bidders Wednesday in what was the first upstream auction featuring natural gas since Mexico’s 2014 energy reform.