Mexico-Japan: building pipelines
Tuesday’s announcement that Mexico has signed an agreement with Japan’s Mitsui Corporation to construct a gas pipeline for $460m was accompanied by the idea that the deal would provide cheaper and more abundant energy for Latin America’s second-largest economy. Continue reading »
Pemex turnaround: can it be done?
There’s a joke about Pemex, Mexico’s gargantuan state-oil monopoly. The new chief executive officer walks in on his first day, summons his top people and gives them the simple task of bringing him a grey pinstripe suit.
So the next day, when he receives a three-piece multi-coloured monstrosity, he asks them what happened that they should have twisted his instructions out of all recognition. “Well, sir,” they say, “we interpreted what you said, and felt that this suit was what you really meant to ask for.” Continue reading »
Mexico awaits its own shale revolution
Ask anyone with a passing knowledge of Mexico’s oil industry and they will likely tell you that Cantarell, the miracle oil field discovered in 1976 by a local fisherman, was the best thing that ever happened. Continue reading »
Mexico: The power of Pemex Tower
Getty Images
Built at the height of Mexico’s oil boom more than three decades ago, the Pemex Tower in Mexico City – now badly damaged by Thursday’s explosion – was once described as “reflecting the pharaonic ambitions of Mexican bureaucracy”.
The description was penned by Manuel Buendía, once the nation’s best-known newspaper columnist, who was shot dead in a city centre street in 1984 in a killing that involved the secret police and drug barons. Continue reading »
Pemex: not cutting the mustard
If you want to know what is wrong with Mexico, you might start by looking at Pemex’s production figures for last year, which were published on Wednesday in a preliminary report and came in at just under 2011 levels, notching up an eighth straight year of declines. Continue reading »
Mexico oil reform: a muddy puddle
If anyone is still unsure about what the new Mexican administration of Enrique Peña Nieto is planning for the country’s oil and gas sector, they should know that they are not alone.
On Sunday, the 46-year-old Peña Nieto and the heads of all the other leading political parties, signed a Pact for Mexico, which, among many other things, dedicates a whole section to energy reform and outlines what the government hopes to do about it. Problem is, no one quite knows what to make of it. Continue reading »
Pemex: another big oil find
As Felipe Calderón, the Mexican president, prepares to leave power this weekend, he dropped off yet another house-warming gift to his successor, Enrique Peña Nieto.
While Peña Nieto was packing his suitcase for a visit to Barack Obama in Washington, Calderón on Sunday announced a third major Mexican oil find in as many months, and the third of such importance in a decade, according to the view of many of those in the business. Continue reading »
Pemex/Petrobras: a tale of two state oil companies
By Claire Gordon
Shares of Petrobras fell sharply on Monday after the Brazilian state company reported a 12 per cent year-on-year decline in third-quarter net profit to $2.7bn.
The next day Pemex, the Mexican state oil company, reported a $1.9bn quarterly net profit. But progress was huge: a year earlier, Pemex reported a $6.2bn net loss. Continue reading »
Pemex oil find: it’s the good stuff
“They tell me it’s good stuff,” said Felipe Calderón (pictured), brandishing a small phial of murky liquid on Wednesday during a televised announcement of Mexico’s first-ever discovery of oil in deep waters, the Trion 1 well.
The relief was palpable as the Mexican president grinned, recalling how in the early days of his presidency the government’s propaganda machine spoke of a “sunken treasure” to be found in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. Now, at last, the treasure has been found. Continue reading »
Mexico: don’t expect reform “big bang”
As the echoes of the mariachi music from his rapturous election victory celebration the previous night still reverbrated around Mexico City on Monday, Enrique Peña Nieto, got straight down to business.
Mexico has a particularly long transition between presidencies – Peña Nieto is not due to be inaugurated until December – and they have frequently been fraught with severe economic and political tensions. Continue reading »
Thinking of investing in Pemex? Don’t hold your breath
Enrique Peña Nieto seems to have won a comfortable victory in Mexico’s elections at the weekend, although he won’t receive official confirmation of his victory until Wednesday.
But investors will have to wait longer to see how the new president will implement radical promises he has made to allow Pemex, the state oil company, to increase its cooperation with the private sector. Continue reading »
Pemex and Mexico oil reform: still some way to go
The four contracts that Pemex, Mexico’s state oil monopoly, awarded on Tuesday to private companies to drill mature fields illustrate much that is wrong with the country’s oil regime.
True, many observers hailed the contracts as a step in the right direction of introducing more private capital into Mexico’s oil sector via an incentive-based mechanism. Until a 2008 energy reform, private companies could not even count on incentive contracts, and the Mexico’s constitution still prohibits Pemex from forming joint-venture contracts with third parties. Continue reading »
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