Mexico

Mexico’s state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) earlier this month all but sealed its financial plans for next year with a bond issue of 450 pounds sterling (US$650 million) just before the Mexican Lower House completed a marathon sitting that submitted the complete 2018 federal budget for final approval by President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mexican competition authorities have cleared a $500 million deal by Sempra Energy’s local subsidiary to increase its stake in the Los Ramones II Norte natural gas pipeline, the company said last week.

Companies passed on Mexico’s first tender to hire a marketer for the oil and natural gas output that the government receives from operators with production-sharing agreements (PSAs).

Mexican authorities are planning a third attempt to auction several blocks of unconventional sources of energy, particularly shale, of which it is reckoned to hold the world’s sixth largest reserves, though so far almost completely untapped.

Gulf of Mexico (GOM) vessel supplier Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. reported increased revenues in the third quarter, but the CEO warned that the market for supply vessels, tankers and barges remains “very challenging,” with operators unlikely to enter into long-term contracts without confidence on commodity prices and rising uncertainty over energy development in Mexico.

Mexico’s energy reforms, in combination with the expansion of the Panama Canal, have reconfigured the fortunes for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), according to an analysis by IHS Markit.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has made its largest onshore discovery in the last 15 years at a well in the southern state of Veracruz, Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto announced at the end of last week.

A survey of Mexican natural gas shippershas revealed 4.62 Bcf/d of mostly new demand for firm transport capacity on the country’s main pipeline system, the Sistrangas.

The Mexican Energy Ministry (Sener) is dusting off a defunct natural gas storage project in the expectation that a new sponsor will take over its development.