Bloomberg – For the first time in almost 80 years, a private company has sunk a new offshore oil well in Mexican waters — the latest step in the country’s drive to allow foreign competitors back into its energy markets.
Category Archives: Energy
Anemic gas drilling pushes need for imports
Platts – Platts Analytics expects total Mexican dry gas production will fall another 0.4 Bcf/d by the end of 2017, further increasing Mexico’s need for US pipeline imports. However, this year has seen a number of delays on new export pipelines.
https://www.platts.com/videos/2017/may/snapshot-mexico-gas-lng-fuel-oil-power-052517
Are Mexico’s oil reserves almost depleted?
Oil Price – Mexico’s oil and gas regulator said last week that the country’s proved hydrocarbon reserves will drop by 10.6 percent in 2017. This forecast, coupled with the lower oil production that Pemex reported for yet another year in 2016, is painting a rather bleak picture of Mexico’s reserves.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Are-Mexicos-Oil-Reserves-Almost-Depleted.html
Newest Texas refineries to ship shale oil to Mexico
Bloomberg – Raven Petroleum and MMEX Resources are building refineries in the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin, Texas, that will process ample local supplies of light crude into gasoline and diesel. The fuel will be shipped on existing rail lines across the border to Mexico.
Oil drillers face angry mob in Tecpatan
Bloomberg – When an angry mob torched City Hall in the southern Mexican town of Tecpatan last month, it sent a warning flare across a country already thrown into turmoil by Donald Trump.
The outrage was over oil, specifically the government’s plan to auction off a swath of land around their farming community to private drillers. The fact that today’s target is the government’s energy policy could spell trouble ahead.
Eni CEO says oil find likely bigger than expected
Reuters – Italy’s Eni said it expects that its recent crude oil discovery off the coast of Mexico would hold more than the 800 million barrels of oil it originally estimated. “This is an important find and we’ve found new layers of good light oil that make us think there’s more,” Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi said.
Mexico will hedge oil export prices
Bloomberg – Mexico plans “without a doubt” to protect the country against low crude prices for next year, Deputy Finance Minister Vanessa Rubio said, in a continuation of what’s become the world’s largest commodities hedging program. The amount of Mexico’s export basket to be protected through market operations, versus through its stabilization fund, has yet to be determined,
200MW wind farm being built in Coahuila
Renewables Now – The Mexican renewables unit of Enel has started construction of a 200-MW wind farm in Coahuila, the Italian energy group announced. The Amistad plant will require a total investment of about $300 million.
https://renewablesnow.com/news/enel-mexico-breaks-ground-on-200-mw-wind-plant-in-mexico-562935/
Eni hits oil in first offshore Mexico well
Financial Times – Italian oil company Eni has discovered “meaningful” reserves of oil off the coast of Mexico after drilling the first well by an international oil company since Mexico opened up its long closed oil sector to private investment under a 2013 reform. “Reserves are still being assessed, but the well indicates a meaningful upside to the original estimates,” Eni said in a statement.
https://www.ft.com/content/2cf085af-9d85-315e-ad63-9f09099a93ee
AMLO, first in polls, threatens to derail energy reforms
Oil Price – Four years after Mexico’s energy reforms began, Lopez Obrador, who currently polls in first place to be elected for Mexico’s top public office in 2018, is threatening to derail the liberalization and review any contracts that have been signed since the entire process began.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-Mexicos-Oil-Boom-Under-Threat.html
Energy could give U.S., Mexico common boon
LAT – Many analysts agree that in at least one sector — energy — the two countries still share opportunities for financial gain and have less incentive for conflict. Even if some terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement change, they say, energy can remain a boon for both countries’ economies, along with that of Canada.
Mexico to add 5GW of clean energy capacity
PV Tech – Mexico will add 5GW of new clean energy to existing capacity, representing 170% growth in generation for wind and solar over the last 18 years, secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquín Coldwell has said.
http://www.pv-tech.org/news/mexico-will-add-5gw-of-new-clean-energy-capacity-says-energy-secretary
Mexico signs lowest-price solar pacts to date
PV – Contracts have been signed for 1.8 GW of solar in Mexico, including one contract at a price of $26.99/MW by Fotowatio. The median price for solar in this auction was around $31.70/MW.
Nafta 2.0 unlikely to impact energy exports to Mexico
Oil Price – Should US-Mexican trade be re-negotiated or a replacement to NAFTA, the 1994 trade agreement, be put into place, it’s unlikely to affect the growing cross-border energy trade.
Pemex imports first diesel via train from U.S.
Reuters – Mexico’s state oil company Pemex began receiving imported fuel by train at a new privately run terminal for the first time in January as companies expand storage and transportation operations under the country’s energy opening, a senior executive said in an interview.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-pemex-diesel-idUSKBN151264
Gas prices to rise as much as 20% in 2017
Reuters – Mexican gasoline prices will rise by as much as 20.1 percent in January compared to the highest recorded prices in December, the government said, as part of a program to end years of government-set prices at the pump.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-gasoline-idUSKBN14G15M
Mexico to delay Round 2 shallow-water auctions
Offshore Magazine – Mexico will delay until June 19, 2017, the announcement of winners for the next phase of its oil and gas, the so-called Round Two tender, which includes 15 shallow-water areas in the Gulf of Mexico. The delay is designed to allow more companies to take part and to incorporate modifications suggested by industry.
Loosening of Mexico gas prices draws heat
WSJ – Mexico is moving to end eight decades of government-controlled gasoline prices, a step that will lead to a big jump in prices at the pump and could prompt a backlash against the government’s efforts to liberalize the country’s energy market. Price controls for gasoline will be scrapped in late March in parts of the country that border the U.S., where motorists are more accustomed to competition among gasoline stations, regulators said.
U.S. refiners cash in on Mexico fuel imports
Reuters – U.S. Gulf Coast refiners are cashing in on rising fuel demand from Mexico, shipping record volumes to a southern neighbor that has failed to expand its refining network to supply a fast-growing economy.
The fuel trade could top a million barrels per day (bpd) at times in 2017 as Mexico becomes increasingly dependent on the United States for strategic energy supplies and providing business worth more than $15 billion a year to refiners such as Valero, Marathon Petroleum and Citgo Petroleum.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-usa-oil-insight-idUSKBN14B0FS
China boosts Mexico ties by grabbing 2 oil tracts
Financial Times – China has muscled its way into investment in Mexico by grabbing two deepwater oil blocks as part of an auction considered the jewel in the crown of the country’s energy reform, in a move that boosts the two nations’ sometimes testy economic ties.
https://www.ft.com/content/9982457e-bb31-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d080