Editor’s Note: NGI’s Mexico Gas Price Index, a leader tracking Mexico natural gas market reform, is offering the following column by Eduardo Prud’homme as part of a regular series on understanding this process.

Sistrangas

For most Mexicans, the word “gas” is not associated with natural gas, but with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a fuel used in about 75% of Mexican homes for cooking and heating. In one of the curiosities of the Mexican energy sector, LPG market private agents have participated in the distribution segment for a long time. Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) traditionally has had a monopoly on LPG production and import transactions, but the distribution of LPG has always been an activity carried out exclusively by private companies. Due to its social importance, it is also a...