NGI Mexico GPI

Mexico cut thousands of government energy jobs to reduce spending last year, but the state-run utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) still added 2,386 employees, a sign experts say demonstrates the political sway of the electricity company’s CEO Manuel Bartlett, an ally of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The volatility in the broader economy continued to make its presence felt in the natural gas futures market Friday, with prices ultimately sliding amid uncertainty over the full impact of the coronavirus. After trading as high as $1.700/MMBtu and as low as $1.574, the April Nymex contract went on to settle at $1.604, down 5.0 cents on the day.

Analysts and industry continue to sound the alarm about the vulnerability of Mexico’s state oil company and economy to low oil prices and the evolving coronavirus pandemic.

Supported by government storage data that came in on the bullish side of estimates, natural gas futures recovered some of their recent losses Thursday, though mild weather and coronavirus impacts continue to weigh on the near-term price outlook. The April Nymex futures contract picked up 5.0 cents to settle at $1.654/MMBtu.

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

With the coronavirus pandemic imperiling not only public health but also energy demand, natural gas futures joined in a wave of selling across the broader economy Wednesday. Undercutting the previous four-year front month low, the April Nymex contract settled at $1.604/MMBtu, down 12.5 cents

Oil-producing nations and their state oil companies in Latin America are poorly positioned to confront sustained lower oil prices, especially in light of the detrimental economic effects of the coronavirus, according to Mauricio Cardenas, an economist who served previously as Colombia’s finance and energy minister.

As oil prices continue to fall amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic and an oversupplied crude market, Mexican state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) must make a choice between production and profitability, according to new analysis by Welligence Energy Analytics.

As natural gas futures traders continued weighing coronavirus demand destruction against future production cuts, the bearish side of the argument won out Tuesday, at least for the near term. The April Nymex contract tumbled 8.6 cents to settle at $1.729/MMBtu.