NGI Mexico GPI

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.

Mexico’s energy regulator, the Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE), is working with natural gas marketers to fine-tune its daily price reporting system as the launch date fast approaches for the nation’s first fully competitive market.

Ten of the 15 shallow-water blocks on offer in the first auction of round two of Mexico’s 2013-2014 energy reform were snapped up Tuesday in what at times was fierce bidding.

Natural gas prices have been freed throughout Mexico, the nation’s energy regulator Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE) declared in a decree published Friday in the Diario Oficial, the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Register.

North American onshore seismic data expert Seitel is partnering with Schlumberger Ltd. in a multiclient alliance to reimage and acquire geophysical data in key areas across onshore Mexico.

Liquids infrastructure development in Mexico is ripe for private sector investment, with major global companies from North America and Europe eyeing the market, according to executives from Sempra Energy’s Mexico City-based unit.

Building Mexico energy infrastructure ranging from refined products to renewables is what Sempra Energy views as its sweet spot for growth through its majority (66%) ownership of Infraestructure Energetica Nova, SAB de CV (IEnova), executives said Tuesday at an analyst meeting in New York City.

Mexico’s 2018 presidential election is a cloud over the country’s energy sector liberalization as populist frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to roll-back reforms. But even if elected, he’s not likely to be successful, the director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Mexico Institute said Wednesday.

Mexico produced 5.334 Bcf/d of natural gas in April, state oil and natural gas company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) reported, a drop of 9.9% from the 5.921 Bcf/d recorded a year ago.