Mexicanos

Mexico state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has signed a five-year agreement with ExxonMobil Corp. to share technical and scientific information. The agreement renews a previous collaboration agreement between the two companies, said officials. Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, recently told reporters that Pemex wouldn’t be sold or privatized, but it would be modernized. Pemex, Mexico’s largest company, provides nearly all of its profits to the federal government. Natural gas production in Mexico has risen slightly from a year ago, but it has fallen over the past four years, according to Pemex. In February, gas output was 6.475 Bcf/d, compared with 6.430 Bcf/d a year ago. However, 2012 gas output averaged an estimated 6.385 Bcf/d, versus 6.594 Bcf/d in 2011 and 7.020 Bcf/d in 2010. Mexico also is a net crude oil exporter, but production fell to less than 3 million bbl in 2011 from almost 4 million bbl in 2003-2004.

Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos’ (Pemex) exploration and production (E&P) unit has awarded contracts with a total value of more than $350 million to Empeiria Acquisition Corp. and subsidiary Integrated Drilling Equipment Co. Holdings (IDE) to build four 3000HP AC modular platform rigs, Houston-based Empeiria said Monday.

The Mexican government said last Thursday’s explosion at the headquarters of state-owned petroleum company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Mexico City was caused by a methane gas leak.

An explosion in Mexico City on Thursday at Mexico’s state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, which killed at least 33 and injured 121 or more, may have been caused by an accident, authorities said. According to reports, the explosion occurred in the basement of the B2 Building, a seven-story structure that serves as an annex adjacent to Pemex’s executive tower. The blast destroyed most of the annex’s first and second floors but the building had not collapsed. Pemex reportedly said the explosion may have been caused by an electrical failure or a problem with a natural gas line.

Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) was reported Thursday on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to be contemplating layoffs of up to 15,000 workers as apart of an overhaul of the government’s energy supply operations. However, NGI sources in California and Mexico City said it may be premature to talk about the possible downsizing of a workforce that is 72% union represented. “Given new appointments [to senior positions], there is a plan to reorganize the company into upstream and downstream segments,” said a Mexico City source who follows Pemex. A total restructuring is “still in process, so nothing has happened so far,” the source said. In California, an energy attorney specializing in Latin America said he had not heard of any layoffs, but any such move would be part of Pemex’s upcoming “modernization and streamlining efforts.” A spokesperson for Sempra Energy, which has extensive holdings in Mexico, said the company’s Mexico City office was unaware of any Pemex plans for layoffs.

Six weeks after Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) reported its first deepwater discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, the producer said it has struck another big gusher nearby.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico’s state-owned oil company, plans to import more natural gas from the United States to avoid shortages and possible price spikes following a deadly fire last week at a natural gas compression station in Reynosa, which as of Friday had claimed 30 lives.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico’s state-owned oil company, plans to import more natural gas from the United States to avoid shortages and possible price spikes following a deadly fire Tuesday at a natural gas compression station in Reynosa, which is south of McAllen, TX.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has launched an investigation following an explosion at a natural gas compression facility in the northern Mexico border town of Reynosa, near McAllen, TX, where at least 29 people were killed and as many as 50 more were injured. Seven people reportedly were missing.