Mexico

Italy’s Eni SpA has raised the resource estimate of its Amoca field offshore Mexico in Campeche Bay after drilling and testing its first well, which indicated “significant oil levels” in the Orca and Cinco Presidentes formations.

One of the hallmarks of the liquid natural gas spot markets in the United States and Canada — access to natural gas storage facilities — help match supply during periods with greater than normal demand. Mexico has made tremendous strides in opening its natural gas grid to third party trading activity in recent months, but the country still has a long way to go to rival the storage availability north of its border.

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Rick Perry told his Mexican counterpart on Thursday that he wants to streamline the permitting process for cross-border energy infrastructure, including natural gas pipelines, calling them “absolutely vital facilitators of energy trade.”

The Zama-1 exploration well in Mexico, the first offshore well drilled in the country by the private sector, has hit net oil pay and some associated natural gas, Houston-based Talos Energy LLC and its partners said Wednesday.

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

For a second consecutive month, the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) has lowered its natural gas price forecast, saying it expects Henry Hub spot prices to average $3.10/MMBtu this year and $3.40/MMBtu next year.

Speaking via videotaped remarks to a gathering in Hamburg, Germany prior to the G20 Summit, California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday announced that his state will host the Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in September 2018. Brown called for global action by citizens to “roll back the forces of carbonization” and address threats related to climate change. The summit, he said, will bring together various subnational government, business, investment and civilian representatives from around the world. Brown’s recorded remarks in Europe were introduced by Christiana Figueres, a former United Nations official dealing with the UN framework on climate change.

Mexico’s initial upstream auctions, including round 2.1 held in mid-June, earned billions for the country in the first upstream auctions, but to date, natural gas has played only a minor role. That may change with two auctions scheduled in July, with gas potentially breaking out as a star performer.

Natural gas takeaway from the Permian Basin’s Waha Hub still has room to grow on existing pipelines, with “considerable upside” on potential exports across the border to Mexico, according to an analysis by RBN Energy LLC.