Mexico’s president signs laws to start implementing oil and gas reforms

Offshore staff

MEXICO CITY –Legislation to define how Mexico will treat foreign direct oil and gas investment in upstream operations continues to move through the country’s system.

The Senate and Chamber of Deputies have sentthe new rules to President Enrique Pena Nieto who has signed them into law.

He said that the government would start by the end of this month to put in place the agencies to regulate and oversee implementation of the new rules. Much of the practical application of the new laws will be left to these agencies to implement.

“We have overcome decades of immobility, and overturned barriers that prevented Mexico from growing,” said Pena Nieto in signing the laws.

The biggest change coming the one that opens production and profit-sharing contracts to operators other than PEMEX. Heretofore, those companies had to operate as subcontractors to PEMEX which meant they could not account any reserves.

Now that these secondary rules are in place, Pena Nieto says that it will announce which blocks will be available in the first round of foreign bidders. Any call for bids from private companies is not expected until 2015. Under the new system, state-owned PEMEX can make its selections before the other operators, and that the announcement of those selections is pending.

8/12/14