Mexico will open up a range of new and mature oil and gas fields to private firms under a proposed energy industry overhaul, and new partnerships with state oil monopoly Pemex could be launched in the second half of next year, a top government official said.
The energy reform bill proposed last week by President Enrique Pena Nieto would enact a new profit-sharing contracting model to lure in private investment.
Senior party lawmakers have said the reform would target deep water oil and shale gas reserves, which Pemex has been unable to exploit because it lacks the funds and technology.
However, the reform would also give private firms a chance to operate in mature fields, including shallow water deposits, where Pemex has decades of experience, widening the scope of energy fields up for grabs.
“The scheme we are proposing will not be limited to any single type of field,” Enrique Ochoa, the deputy energy minister responsible for hydrocarbons, told Reuters in an interview late last week. “This is not a reform that seeks to only open up new fields.“
The overhaul is the cornerstone of a wide-reaching reform package Pena Nieto hopes will boost growth in Mexico, Latin America’s No 2 economy, and drag its energy industry into the modern era.
Pena Nieto hopes a cross-party political pact forged early in his presidency to build consensus on a range of reforms will help him win Congress’ support for the constitution-changing energy industry bill by the end of the year.
If it does, Pemex will then choose which fields it wants to exploit on its own. After the so-called “round zero” tender, Pemex would then be free to team up with private oil companies, with the first such profit-sharing contracts likely sealed in the second half of 2014.
“In round zero, Pemex can choose which existing fields it wants to exploit in future,” Ochoa said. “Then in a second stage, it could ask the government to agree profit-sharing contracts with private companies.”
“That would mean that in the second half of 2014, we could pact the first profit-sharing contracts,” he added.
Ochoa, a lawyer, did not outline how the contracts would be structured within so-called secondary laws, which are the fine print of the reform proposal.
