Mexico’s bidding rounds – NRGI Broker Expertos en Seguros para el Sector Energético

Feature: Mexico’s oil industry cautiously optimistic of future energy policy

2 octubre, 2018/en Economy, Hydrocarbons Storage, International Markets, Mexico’s bidding rounds, Mexico’s Energy Reform, News, Oil & Gas, Oil Operators

S&P Global / Daniel Rodriguez / Edited by Pankti Mehta / October 1

Mexico City — Oil and gas executives attending last week’s Mexican Petroleum Congress (CMP) in Acapulco told S&P Global Platts that they were cautiously optimistic about the future of the country’s energy reform, pointing to higher oil prices and some clarification of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s policies.

The conference took place as Lopez Obrador held a closed-door meeting with the country’s association of hydrocarbon producers, AMEXHI, on Thursday in Mexico City.

The incoming administration gave a firm message: Mexico will continue the energy reform and private upstream investment as long as they can deliver results by boosting output.

The meeting cleared some uncertainties that had built up since Lopez Obrador’s electoral victory in July. Obrador has been historically opposed to private investment in Mexico’s energy sector.

PRIVATE OPERATORS TO PRODUCE 280,000 B/D: LOPEZ OBRADOR

According to a video of the meeting obtained by Platts, Lopez Obrador told operators that the future of the reform rested on their shoulders.

«We want to give you the opportunity to invest and work on this reform,» Lopez Obrador said. However, companies must invest and boost output to prove the success of the country’s new energy model.

The president-elect said his goal is that private operators produce 280,000 b/d of crude oil and 305 MMcf/d of the natural gas by the end of his term in 2024. «That would be the ideal. We aren’t asking for more and we are happy with that level,» he said.

This is a very conservative projection compared to the 430,000 b/d estimate shared by outgoing Energy Secretary Pedro Joaquin Coldwell at the inauguration of CMP.

At a webcast press conference Thursday, Mexico’s future energy secretary Rocio Nahle said that auction rounds would be halted. She said the country first needs to evaluate the 110 contracts awarded to date because they have not helped boost domestic production.

«It would be irresponsible to continue auctioning areas without a previous production gain [from awarded areas],» Nahle said.

OPERATORS ARE CALM WITH INCOMING GOVERNMENT

AMEXHI members are allies of the state and can collaborate with Pemex to «continue strengthening Mexico’s energy security,» Alberto de la Fuente, AMEXHI’s president, said in a statement Thursday.

This message of partnership was also shared by senior executives from BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron, DEA Deutsche Erdoel, Equinor, and Shell at the CMP.

«We aren’t here to replace Pemex but to complement it and help to achieve the incoming administration’s goal of boosting oil output,» Steve Pastor, BHP Billiton’s president for petroleum operations, told Platts last week at the CMP.

De la Fuente denied that private operators were uncertain over the review of contracts awarded by the country’s National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH).

In the statement, he said that AMEXHI members left the meeting with the incoming administration with the knowledge that Lopez Obrador will honor their contracts.

However, some industry members expressed their frustration to Platts at the conference about an apparent lack of understanding from the incoming administration on the long-term nature of the upstream industry.

INCOMING ADMINISTRATION WILL SEEK TO CUT RED TAPE

At the meeting with AMEXHI members, Lopez Obrador said his administration would work with regulators to cut the red tape and quicken the development of new projects.

«Some of you have told me permits take too long, and regulators delay your investment plans as well as Pemex’s activities,» Lopez Obrador said. «We are going to solve all bureaucratic roadblocks.»

Juan Carlos Zepeda, CNH’s president commissioner, told reporters Friday there was space to make the regulatory process leaner and more efficient while protecting the wellbeing of the country’s fields and hydrocarbon resources.

«We share views with President-elect Lopez Obrador and the industry … we are working toward that path without neglecting our responsibility of protecting Mexico’s reservoirs,» Zepeda said.

Right now, Mexico is more efficient than the US when it comes to the development of wells as CNH only requires notice from the operators instead of regulatory approvals, Zepeda said.

Also, CNH is working on a new process to expedite the approval of exploratory and development programs, which is currently under public consultation, he added.

A major regulatory roadblock for Mexico’s upstream sector has been Pemex’s framework to farmout projects via CNH auctions, Pemex senior officials said at CMP.

Zepeda said he supports the idea of Pemex being able to choose its own farm out partners. However, the company should maintain transparency levels upheld by CNH.

S&P Global / Daniel Rodriguez / Edited by Pankti Mehta / October 1

Risk And Reform: Observing Effective Controls In Mexico’s Rapidly Transforming Energy Sector

12 junio, 2018/en Economy, Environmental Legislation, Mexico’s bidding rounds, Mexico’s Energy Reform, News

Forbes / Armando Ortega / 11 Junio

MEXICO CITY—For decades, the most relevant compliance legislation for international companies operating in Mexico was the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Now, as a result of major national economic and legal reforms enacted during President Peña Nieto’s administration from 2012-2018, Mexico’s compliance environment has undergone a transformation. As foreign investment pours into Mexico’s recently opened oil and gas sector, legal entities are now criminally liable for any offenses or irregularities committed in their name, making the case for a robust compliance strategy that includes due diligence investigations into possible business partners.

A changing landscape: Mexico’s Energy Reform

Mexico enacted a historic reform program in December of 2013 that opened its oil and gas sector to foreign investment following 75 years of government ownership. Mexico’s energy reform plan was part of a broader, cross-sector effort by President Enrique Peña Nieto to boost the Mexican economy. Since its implementation, there have been three bidding rounds—the latest of which closed in March 2018—that have raised a total of $161.3 billion for investments that will take place until 2025. Fourteen percent of total investment is for public-private partnership projects between domestic and international companies and the Mexican state-owned oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). With these investments, Pemex expects to significantly increase Mexico’s current production of 2 million barrels per day to a hypothetical 3.4 million barrels per day.

There is significant international interest in the process, with 34 companies securing bids. The US, with nine companies, and the UK, with four, lead the pack. Royal Dutch Shell, Qatar Petroleum, British Petroleum and Chevron are just a few of the major multinationals that have a stake in Mexico as a result of the energy reform.

Although significant opportunities are opening up in the sector, it is key that international investors understand the complexities involved with the energy reforms, as they are occurring amid a rapidly changing regulatory environment and era of overall reform resulting from the Peña Nieto years, and as part of a broader shift in sentiment among the Latin American public in the fight against corruption.

The National Anticorruption System and the new compliance environment

In what can be best understood as a citizens’ effort, a set of new legislative and constitutional reforms have been introduced in Mexico since May 2014, culminating in the establishment of the National Anticorruption System (SNA) in July 2016. The SNA is defined as a coordinating body between various institutions, including the Superior Audit of the Federation and the Federal Court of Administrative Justice, among others, to create mechanisms of collaboration and coordination to effectively prosecute corrupt practices.

The SNA is still in its early stages; a Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in Combating Corruption has yet to be properly established, and the Mexican Congress has yet to elect the Anticorruption Prosecutor. However, despite the lack of distinct progress, parts of the legal reforms introduced to create the SNA already have far-reaching implications.

Forbes / Armando Ortega / 11 Junio

Mexico raises the bar on oil deals as Latin America vies for investment

6 febrero, 2018/en Mexico’s bidding rounds, Mexico’s Energy Reform, News, Oil & Gas

FROM: Reuters / Marianna Parraga, Adriana Barrera / 2 de Febrero de 2018

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico has raised the bar on oil contracts in Latin America after sweetening terms to attract international energy firms, luring $93 billion in future investment in the region’s first big auction this year.

On Wednesday, Mexico awarded 19 of 29 deepwater blocks onoffer, comfortably more than the seven areas expected to be assigned. Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell emerged as the biggest winner, with nine blocks.

Unique for generous terms such as setting a cap on royalties that oil firms can pledge to the government in bids, Mexico faces off this year with Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay.

They will all hold auctions for oil and gas fields in 2018 that require billions of dollars in investment from foreign firms.

Mexico is due to hold major auctions in March and July.

While Brazil’s prolific deepwater presalt oilfields are expected to attract aggressive bidding from oil majors, other regional rivals could be forced to revise the terms of their auctions if Mexico scores another win in its next auction for shallow water areas in March, analysts said.

Argentina and Ecuador have already changed their terms over the past year in preparation for their 2018 auctions. Argentina has lowered labor costs and some taxes, while Ecuador switched to production sharing from service contracts.

Oil prices have reached three-year highs near $70 per barrel in 2018, giving the world’s top energy companies a cash boost and improving the chances that they will have the funds needed for big-ticket projects in Latin American.

The industry is, however, emerging from a recession that cost tens of thousands of jobs and forced companies to slash spending on expensive projects such as those in deep waters. Oil majors have committed to keeping tight control on costs and will only bid for what they see as the most profitable projects.

Oil executives and industry specialists say the terms on offer in Mexico, as well as the potential for major finds in the country’s deep water, made it attractive on Wednesday.

At the auction, the decisive bidding parameter was the cash bonus that firms pledged. Shell won several bids with cash bonuses that drew surprised gasps from an audience mostly made up of executives from bidding firms and members of the media.

Mexico collected $525 million in cash.

While the government has limited its own take at the auction, the estimated $93 billion in investments pledged to develop the blocks auctioned is about 1.5 times greater than the amount involved in the previous eight auctions.

”COMPETITION FOR CAPITAL’

After the government of Mexico started auctioning oilfields in 2015, it tweaked the terms of the bidding process several times, following a historic energy reform that ended state oil firm Pemex’s 75-year monopoly over the sector.

The liberalization, the most ambitious plank of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s economic policy, started just as oil prices crashed in 2013-2014.

The government had to balance the need for a big enough take for the state to placate opponents of the reform with ensuring there was enough potential profit to attract foreign firms.

“Mexico understood how tough the competition for capital was in a very difficult oil price environment,” consultant Pablo Medina told Reuters.

After failing to award a large number of blocks in previous auctions, the government regarded the results of this week’s deepwater bidding round as a success.

As well as the limits on royalties, sweeteners included allowing foreign firms to propose areas to be included in the bidding rounds and relaxing the qualification process.

Mexico also put a stop to “additional investment pledges.” This makes it harder for small companies to win by making unrealistic promises, but further limits the mandatory investment in projects.

“What we are looking for is that the market tells us how big royalty should be and how much government take is possible to achieve,” Salvador Ugalde, head of the Mexican Finance Ministry’s Hydrocarbon Income Unit, said Wednesday.

Brazil, which plans a busy auction schedule for 2018, does not expect Mexico’s auctions will lower interest in its own offerings, said Marcio Felix, Brazil’s oil and gas secretary.

In Brazil’s last round in October, Shell and BP were the biggest winners.

“We have a set of companies that have an appetite for a certain type of asset,” Felix told Reuters on Thursday.

FROM: Reuters / Marianna Parraga, Adriana Barrera / 2 de Febrero de 2018

Jefferson Energy Companies Originates the First ExxonMobil Unit Trains of Refined Products to Mexico

29 enero, 2018/en Hydrocarbons Storage, Mexico’s bidding rounds, Mexico’s Energy Reform, News, Oil & Gas, Oil Operators

From: GlobeNewswire / 11 de Diciembre de 2017

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Jefferson Energy Companies (“Jefferson”), a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC (NYSE:FTAI), is playing an important role in ExxonMobil’s recent Mexico market entry. With logistics support from Jefferson, ExxonMobil is the first company to provide an integrated product offering along the entire fuels value chain in Mexico. Unit trains of gasoline and diesel delivered to Central Mexican markets originated at Jefferson’s terminal in Beaumont, Texas. The unit train loading was done under an agreement with ExxonMobil. These volumes originated at Jefferson were safely delivered through a destination terminal in San Luis Potosi to retail gasoline stations in the Bajio region. ExxonMobil previously announced its intent to spend $300 million in fuel logistics, product inventories and marketing in support of Mobil-branded stations and Synergy-branded fuels, and these unit train shipments are part of that program.

About the Jefferson Energy Terminal

Jefferson Energy CEO and President Greg Binion said, “We are excited to be an integral part of the transformation of the Mexican energy sector. Further, we are very pleased that ExxonMobil recognized the operational flexibility and advantages that our terminal provides. As this opportunity in Mexico expands, we plan to continue to enter into other contracts to provide logistics for refined products export to Mexico. We also plan to continue to invest in associated tanks as well as rail and loading infrastructure in order to meet the rapidly growing demands of this market.”

The terminal is owned and operated by Jefferson Energy Companies, a midstream oil and terminal company that serves the Gulf Coast. The terminal is located on 243 acres in Beaumont, Texas, positioned in one of the largest refinery markets in the U.S., located in the center of the 9.2 million bbdGulf Coast refining market (PAD III). The terminal is a public-private partnership between the Port of Beaumont Navigation District of Jefferson County, Texas and Jefferson Energy Companies. The Port of Beaumont is the fourth busiest port in the United States, according to the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers tonnage statistics, and the busiest military port in the U.S. The terminal is currently served by three Class I railroad carriers, allowing delivery from most origination terminals and plants in North America.

About Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC

Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC (NYSE:FTAI) owns and acquires high quality infrastructure and equipment that is essential for the transportation of goods and people globally. FTAI targets assets that, on a combined basis, generate strong and stable cash flows with the potential for earnings growth and asset appreciation. FTAI is externally managed by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC, a leading, diversified global investment firm. For more information about FTAI, visit www.ftandi.com.

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