Proposed border tax could harm U.S.-Mexico energy trade: official

/

A border tax floated by aides to U.S. President Donald Trump is “not a good idea” for bilateral energy trade, a senior Mexican official said on Wednesday, also confirming that Mexico’s second-ever deepwater oil auction would happen this year.

A 20 percent border tax on Mexican imports to the United States has been pitched by the Trump administration as one way to force Mexico to pay for a new border wall, a top campaign promise.

Separately, a so-called border adjustment tax has been proposed by the new administration and its Republican allies in Congress that in theory would tax imports but not exports.

Both proposed taxes face opposition from U.S. oil refiners and automakers, among other sectors, warning they would raise consumer prices.

“We don’t see this kind of a tax as a good idea,” said Aldo Flores, Mexico’s deputy energy minister for hydrocarbons.

“Our position continues to be that free trade and the free flow of these goods has benefited both countries, strengthening the energy security of both,” he said.

Relations between the United States and Mexico are especially tense as Trump has threatened to upend nearly a quarter century of free trade, deport millions of illegal immigrants and build his signature border wall while getting Mexico to pay it, something the Mexican government has said it will not do.

For decades, the two neighbors have nurtured a robust cross-border energy trade, with crude oil produced by state company Pemex sold to U.S. refiners, while American producers sell natural gas and fuels like gasoline and diesel to Mexican buyers.

Last year, the total value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico totaled $20.2 billion, while Mexico exported mostly crude oil worth $8.7 billion to the United States, in a reversal of the historic balance of energy trade between the two countries, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Similarly, Mexico’s crude shipments could be pressured if the United States approves the new Trump-backed permit for TransCanada’s (TRP.TO) proposed Keystone XL pipeline and the project brings new supplies of Canadian heavy crude to U.S. refineries.

“Supposing that (the pipeline) is completed, that changes the competitive playing field for Mexican crude,” said Flores, adding that producers of oil in Mexico would have to be more creative in how they market their output.

 

DEEPWATER AUCTION

Mexican and Canadian heavy crudes have competed for years for buyers among U.S. Gulf coast refineries.

While Mexico’s oil regulator is planning three new oil auctions later this year, covering shallow water and onshore fields, a new deepwater auction is also planned.

“It will be toward the end of the year,” said Flores, who also sits on the Pemex board and took over as deputy energy minister in August.

He declined to specify where the deepwater blocks would be located.

Flores added that a first-ever auction of shale oil and gas blocks would “probably” be scheduled, noting that necessary regulations would be published before the end of the year.

Last year, Mexico concluded four first-ever oil auctions, part of a landmark energy opening finalized in 2014 that ended Pemex’s decades-long monopoly, including a December deepwater auction that awarded 10 blocks to a wide range of international oil majors.

While Mexican crude output has declined over the past dozen years from a peak of 3.4 million barrels per day, Flores said he expected output to total 1.9 million to 2.0 million bpd in 2018, similar to a forecast of 1.94 million bpd for this year.

 

3 Octubre_shutterstock_331572071

 

David Alire Garcia and Adriana Barrera / Reuters

Wed Feb 15, 2017 | 8:09pm EST

Mexico, NAFTA and energy on the same side

/

When it comes to NAFTA and energy, there is no doubt that Mexico gets the better end of the deal with a series of special carve outs for its national industry. The result has been an unbalanced, incongruous relationship between the United States, Mexico and Canada. In other words, when it comes to energy, NAFTA is anything but free trade .

Take the following examples from chapter six of NAFTA, addressing energy trade:

An American company is permitted to open a power plant in Mexico to generate power for Texas, but, according to the provisions carved out for Mexico’s nationalized energy industry, the power plant would have to sell all of its excess power to Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) at the rate negotiated by CFE. ( Annex 602.3(5) ) If a cogeneration plant is built in Mexico with the express purpose of providing power for a Canadian company’s factory in Mexico, then, according to NAFTA, it must sell any excess power to CFE. ( Annex 602.3(5)(b) ) In both cases, the American and Canadian operations face a disadvantage in price negotiations because they are required to sell excess power to CFE only.

When it comes to oil and gas exploration, NAFTA includes a provision requiring the three countries to maintain incentives to encourage companies to find new energy reserves. ( Article 608.1 ) However, in the special provisions, Mexico is exempted from incentivizing – or even permitting – private exploration and development. This special provision makes clear that “the Mexican State reserves to itself” all E&P, nuclear power, foreign trade, transportation, storage, distribution and electrical supply within its own borders. ( Annex 602.3(1) ). In the U.S. and Canada, free trade in energy exploration must be promoted. In Mexico, the government can do what it chooses .

Mexico is allowed to “restrict the granting of import and export licenses for the sole purpose of reserving foreign trade” in a variety of energy goods including (but not limited to): aviation fuel, gasoline, shale and tar sands, diesel oil, most forms of commercial gasses and kerosene. ( Annex 603.6 ). The U.S. and Canada must keep import and export licenses open.

These carve outs meant to favor Mexico’s national energy industries have not been kind to Mexico’s economy, energy supply or business development. Mexico has insisted one form or another of nationalized energy for almost a century . Basic tenants of capitalism explain that a closed, national energy regime prohibits competition, leading to misalignment of resources and prices. Absent a truly robust and well-managed system in Mexico, this is what happened.

In 2014, historically low levels of oil production, higher energy consumption and depleted oil reserves led Mexico amend its constitution to open Mexico’s state energy industries to foreign investment. These changes permitted the Mexican government to auction off certain oil and gas leases to foreign, private companies for development and to allow foreign companies to participate in owning pipelines, refineries, petrochemical plants and even electricity generation. Mexico also committed to bringing gasoline and natural gas prices in line with market prices rather than setting them artificially.

Although the process has not always been smooth – Mexico is experiencing gasoline shortages and spikes in gasoline prices, in part, as a result of these efforts – the overall trend towards liberalization in Mexico’s energy industry is promising. Many companies have bid for offshore leases to produce oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico and the opportunities to invest in Mexican energy businesses are growing.

Since the Mexican state is no longer the only legal investor, owner, producer, buyer and seller of energy and energy products in Mexico, there is now a potential to renegotiate chapter six of NAFTA and eliminate the special provisions and carve outs for Mexico. This would not only help improve Mexico’s energy situation, but improve trade relations amongst the three North American trade partners.

Grupo México proyecta invertir en energía

Grupo México proyecta invertir en energía

Story by Ellen R. Wald, Ph.D. is a historian and scholar of the energy industry / Petroleumworld

02 17 2017

BHP Billiton ticks $2.8 billion Gulf oil deal

/

BHP Billiton has approved its share of the $US9 billion ($11.8bn) Mad Dog 2 offshore oil project in the US Gulf of Mexico, six weeks after operator BP ticked off on the project.

For BHP, its 23.9 per cent stake in the 140,000 barrels per day platform will set it back $US2.2bn ($2.8bn) and offset some of its declining oil production from 2021-22 when oil starts to flow.

“Mad Dog Phase 2 is one of the largest discovered and undeveloped resources in the Gulf of Mexico, one of BHP Billiton’s preferred conventional deepwater basins,” said BHP’s Houston-based petroleum president Steve Pastor.

“It offers an attractive investment opportunity for BHP Billiton and aligns with our strategic objective to build our conventional portfolio through the development of large, long-life, high-quality resources.”

BHP’s petroleum unit is focused on conventional oil after $US20bn of US shale acquisitions in 2011, and nearly as much spending since, have failed to deliver expected returns because of subsequent falls in oil and gas ­prices. Mad Dog 2 was originally expected to cost $US20bn but after going back to the drawing board three years ago, the joint venture, which also includes Chevron, has shaved more than 50 per cent off the costs.

According to Deutsche Bank estimates, the Mad Dog stake is worth $US866m of value for BHP, which is also expanding in the Mexican waters of the Gulf.

Shortly after BP approved Mad Dog, BHP beat BP in a $US1.2bn bid to partner Mexico’s national oil company, Pemex, in the Gulf, making it the first company to do so since the Mexican industry was nationalised in 1938.

The deal on the known 485 million-barrel Trion oil discovery, about 30km from Mexico’s sea border with the US, delivers BHP a near-term development opportunity in partnership with Pemex, which the Mexican government estimates could cost $US11bn.

First production at a daily rate of 120,000 barrels a day by 2022 would be possible by the joint venture — BHP (60 per cent operator) and Pemex (40 per cent).

Mexico undid Pemex’s oil industry monopoly in December 2013 under a reform agenda designed to bring in foreign capital and expertise to accelerate the pace of development, particularly for the backlog of projects in the deepwater oil fairways of the Gulf of Mexico. Macquarie estimates that Trion will cost $US11bn to develop. The bank forecasts that BHP’s petroleum production will slide from 132 million barrels of oil equivalent this financial year to 113.4 million in 2020-21. BHP is due to report first-half profits on February 21.

RBC is expecting BHP to log underlying net profit of $US3.11bn, up from $US514m a year earlier and its interim dividend to fall to US14c a share, down from US16c.

Copyright: The Australian

Value of U.S. Energy Trade with Mexico Doubles

/

Energy trade between Mexico and the U.S. has historically been driven by Mexico’s sales of crude oil to the U.S. and by U.S. net exports of refined petroleum products to Mexico. The value balance has now tipped in favor of the U.S.

Through 2014, Mexico’s exports of crude oil were the most valuable component of bilateral energy trade, with the overall value of Mexico’s U.S. crude oil sales far exceeding the value of U.S. net sales of petroleum products, primarily gasoline and diesel fuel, to Mexico. From 2006 through 2010, for example, the value of U.S. energy imports from Mexico was two to three times greater than the value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico.

However, the bilateral energy trade situation with Mexico has changed significantly in recent years. In 2015 and 2016, the value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico, including rapidly growing volumes of both petroleum products and natural gas, exceeded the value of U.S. energy imports from Mexico as volumes of Mexican crude oil sold in the U.S. continued to decline. For 2016, the value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico was $20.2 billion, while the value of U.S. energy imports from that country was $8.7 billion.

Import and export values each reflect commodity volumes and their prices. Monthly trends in volumes through 2016 showed increasing U.S. petroleum product and natural gas exports to Mexico, with a generally declining trend in U.S. crude oil imports from Mexico.

Mexico is second only to Canada in energy trade with the U.S. Based on the latest annual data from the U.S. Census Bureau, energy accounted for about nine percent of all U.S. exports to Mexico and three percent of all U.S. imports from Mexico in 2016.

Crude oil makes up most of the energy imports from Mexico, averaging 688,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2015 and 588,000 b/d in the first 11 months of 2016. In 2015, Mexico was the source of nine percent of crude oil imported by the U.S., providing the fourth-largest share behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. 

From 2006 through 2014, U.S. crude oil imports from Mexico were valued at an annual average of about $30 billion, but more recently, as both the volume of crude oil imports from Mexico and world oil prices declined, U.S. crude oil imports from Mexico were valued at $12.5 billion in 2015 and $7.6 billion in 2016. 

Mexico’s total crude oil exports have been declining as its oil production falls. Because Mexico has been sending more oil to countries in Europe and Asia, crude oil exports to the U.S. have been declining more rapidly than overall crude oil exports.

Petroleum products account for most of the value of energy exports from the U.S. to Mexico. In 2015, Mexico was the destination for 690,000 b/d of petroleum products, or 16 percent of all petroleum products exported from the U.S. These exports were valued at more than $16 billion. In 2015, even though the U.S. exported more petroleum products to Mexico than in 2014, the value of those products was lower because of lower prices for fuels such as gasoline, distillate fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gases.

In the first 11 months of 2016, petroleum product exports rose in both volume (averaging 849,000 b/d) and value relative to the first 11 months of 2015. Changes in Mexico’s utilization of petroleum refineries have created a widening gap between its domestic supply and demand, and U.S. gasoline exports now make up more than half of Mexico’s gasoline consumption. Compared with petroleum product exports, 2016 petroleum product imports from Mexico to the U.S. were relatively small, accounting for about 87,000 b/d and valued at $0.9 billion through November.

Bilateral natural gas trade is dominated by pipeline shipments between the United States and Mexico. U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico totaled nearly 2.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2015, or almost 60 percent of all U.S. natural gas exports, and are growing rapidly. 

Based on data through November, U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico averaged 3.8 Bcf/d in 2016, and reports indicate that daily flows during early 2017 are already exceeding 4.2 Bcf/d.

In 2017 and 2018, natural gas pipelines currently under construction or in the planning stages are expected to nearly double the pipeline natural gas exporting capacity from the U.S. to Mexico. Much of this natural gas will likely be used to generate electricity, as Mexico’s energy ministry expects to add significant natural gas-fired electricity generating capacity through 2029.

Insurance Regulations for Oil Companies

Copyright: The Maritime Executive

Saudi Aramco Hires Banks for First Bond Sale Ahead of IPO

/

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. picked four banks to advise on its first bond sale, two people familiar with the matter said, ahead of plans for the world’s largest initial public offering.

Saudi Aramco, as the company is known, selected HSBC Holdings Plc’s local unit and Riyad Capital to help with the sale of riyal-denominated Islamic bonds, or sukuk, before the end of June, said the people, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

NCB Capital Co. and Alinma Investment Co. are also working on the deal that could be followed by dollar-denominated bonds, two other people said. The sukuk is part of Aramco’s plans to raise as much as $10 billion in bonds this year, one of the people said. Aramco and HSBC Saudi Arabia declined to comment, while Riyad Capital, NCB Capital and Alinma Investment didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, is preparing to sell bonds ahead of an IPO in 2018. The Saudi Arabian government’s debut offering in October raised $17.5 billion in the biggest-ever emerging-market sale. Middle East and North African countries sold almost $80 billion of bonds last year, the most since Bloomberg started compiling data in 1999.

Although Aramco hasn’t sold bonds before, two of its units have. Sadara Chemical Co., a joint venture between Aramco and Dow Chemical Co., raised 7.5 billion riyals ($2 billion) in 2013, while the company’s joint venture with Total SA sold 3.75 billion riyals of sukuk in 2011.

Saudi Arabia plans to sell less than 5 percent of Aramco as part of plans by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to set up the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund and reduce the economy’s reliance on hydrocarbons. With the government valuing Aramco at $2 trillion, its estimated IPO size would make it the largest ever, dwarfing the $25 billion raised by Chinese Internet retailer Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in 2014.

Aramco asked banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC to pitch for an advisory role on the IPO last month, people said at the time.

Copyright: Bloomberg

Oil spill near Exxon Mobil drilling platform is Bass Strait to be investigated

/

An oil spill at an Exxon Mobil platform in the Bass Strait is being investigated by the federal regulator, after the discovery of an oily sheen on waters around the rig.

The spill comes less than 18 months after a fire raged on the same platform for nine hours before it could be controlled. And in 2013, Exxon was responsible for a spill from another rig in the Bass Strait.

Environmentalists have said the spill is a reminder of the inherent dangers of offshore oil drilling, and called for planned oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight to be stopped.

North Sea or Great Australian Bight, oil drilling is always a risky business

On Thursday, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) posted an alert saying Esso, a company owned by ExxonMobil, had informed it of an oil sheen alongside its West Tuna platform in the Bass Strait the previous day.

The platform is 45km off the Gippsland coast in Victoria. The cause of the spill, and how much oil contaminated the water, was not yet known.

A spokesman for ExxonMobil said it was still investigating the cause of the spill.

“On Wednesday, 1 February an oil sheen was observed on the water near the West Tuna platform in the Bass Strait,” he said. “Esso responded immediately and continues to investigate potential sources of the sheen observed on 1 February.

“The Tuna to West Tuna pipeline, which is the pipeline nearest to the observed sheen, was shut-in at the time of original observation due to planned maintenance on West Tuna platform and remains shut in and not in operation.”

The Greenpeace oceans campaigner, Nathaniel Pelle, said: “Offshore oil drilling is risky business for our oceans and fisheries industries, as this latest oil spill near one of Australia’s largest fisheries shows.

“This spill in the Bass Strait should send a clear ‘wrong-way-go-back’ signal to the federal government, which is set to consider exploratory oil drilling by Chevron in the Great Australian Bight – a nursery for southern right whale calves.”

In September 2015 an electrical fire raged for nine hours on the same rig. It caused all the lights on the platform to go out, forcing an evacuation to occur at night without lights.

In 2013, another ExxonMobil rig in the Bass Strait spilled about 750 litres of oil into the water.

The Exxon spokesperson defended the company’s safety procedures.

“Our platforms and pipelines are operated in accordance with ExxonMobil’s operations integrity management system, together with regulator approved safety cases and environmental plan which are systems to ensure the safety and health of personnel, maintain facilities integrity, and protect the environment,” he said.

17 Octubre_shutterstock_394034854

Copyright: The Guardian

Chevron Says To Give CEO Fewer Stock Options

/

Oil and natural gas producer Chevron Corp said it would give its top executive fewer stock options after shareholders expressed concern about executive pay.

Oil companies have been restructuring pay packages of their top management after a two-year-long slump in oil prices eroded profitability.

Chevron said on Monday the average support from shareholders for the company’s compensation package fell to 54 percent in 2016 from the 95 percent it averaged between 2011 and 2015.

Stock options give employees the right to buy a specific number of shares in the future at a pre-determined price.

Restricted stock units (RSU), once vested, are equal to a share of stock. They vest according to a set distribution schedule after an employee achieves performance goals, or remains with the company for a certain period.

Chevron said it held 25 meetings with shareholders, who held about 36 percent of its outstanding stock, and with advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis.

The company said its board approved a grant to Chief Executive John Watson that included 250,000 stock options, 65,340 performance shares and 32,670 restricted stock units in 2017, compared with 964,800 stock options and 73,600 performance shares in 2016.

Chevron said the changes would strengthen accountability for project performance, investment discipline and reinforce the link between executive compensation and long-term performance. However, the move would not change the “target award value.”

 

OIL PRICE ECONOMY

 

Copyright: Rigzone

OPEC Convinces Investors That Its Oil Output Cuts Are Real

/

OPEC appears to have persuaded investors that it’s making good on promised production cuts.

Money managers are the most optimistic on West Texas Intermediate oil prices in at least a decade as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers reduce crude output. Saudi Arabia has said more than 80 percent of the targeted reduction of 1.8 million barrels a day has been implemented. Oil shipments from OPEC are plunging this month, according to tanker-tracker Petro-Logistics SA.

“All the signs are pointing to a pretty significant OPEC cut,” Mike Wittner, head of commodities research at Societe Generale SA in New York, said by telephone. “Until this week we were only getting data from the producers, now the tanker traffic seems to be supporting this view.”

OPEC will reduce supply by 900,000 barrels a day in January, the first month of the accord’s implementation, said the Geneva-based Petro-Logistics. That’s about 75 percent of the cut that the producer group agreed to make. Eleven non-members led by Russia are to curb their output in support.

Hedge funds boosted their net-long position, or the difference between bets on a price increase and wagers on a decline, by 6.1 percent in the week ended Jan. 24, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. WTI rose 1.3 percent to $53.18 a barrel in the report week. The U.S. benchmark slipped 1.1 percent to $52.57 at 10:52 a.m.

OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria have said they’ve cut output this month by even more than was required, while Russia said it’s also curbing production faster than was agreed. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said Jan. 22 that adherence has been so good that OPEC probably won’t need to extend the accord when it expires in the middle of the year.

Shale Headwind

The OPEC-engineered price rally has spurred a surge in drilling in the U.S. shale patch. Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. rose by 15 to 566 last week, the highest since November 2015, according to Baker Hughes Inc.

“There’s one headwind in the oil market: increased U.S. shale production,” Jay Hatfield, a New York-based portfolio manager of the InfraCap MLP exchange-traded fund with $175 million in assets, said by telephone. “U.S. output in 2017 will be 1 million barrels a day higher than last year.”

U.S. crude production climbed to 8.96 million barrels a day in the week ended Jan. 20, the highest since April, according to the Energy Information Administration. That’s already closing in on the EIA’s latest 2017 output forecast of 9 million barrels a day that was issued Jan. 10.

The net-long position in WTI rose by 21,429 futures and options to 370,939, the most in data going back to 2006. Longs rose 3.7 percent to a record high, while shorts slipped 11 percent.

In the Brent market, money managers reduced the net-long position by 3.1 percent to 448,352 during the week, according to data from ICE Futures Europe. Longs slipped, while shorts rose.

In fuel markets, net-bullish bets on gasoline fell 3.4 percent to 61,511 contracts as futures decreased 1.5 percent in the report week. Money managers increased wagers on higher ultra-low sulfur diesel prices by 1.3 percent to 34,978 contracts, while futures slid 0.4 percent.

“For the time being the market is more focused on the OPEC cuts than about how fast U.S. shale drillers are returning,” Wittner said. “There may come a point soon when the support provided by OPEC will be outweighed by the prospect of rising U.S. production. When that happens there will be a big shift in investor sentiment.”

 

opec

 

Copyright: Bloomberg

Trump Promises Business Leaders Major Border Tax, Rule Cuts

/

President Donald Trump told business leaders Monday he would impose a “very major” border tax on companies that move jobs outside the U.S. and said he would cut regulations by 75 percent.

A breakfast meeting with corporate executives at the White House kicked off the first working day of a president who made the promise of greater economic opportunity for American workers a centerpiece of his campaign. Trump plans to continue the theme Monday by signing executive orders on trade and labor issues, and will meet in the afternoon with labor leaders and U.S. workers, an administration official said.

The meeting, with an advisory panel on manufacturing led by Dow Chemical Co. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris, welcomed some of the nation’s most prominent corporate leaders to the White House. During the transition, Trump at times used his new power as a cudgel against companies that provoked his ire with plans to move jobs overseas or with prices for weapons systems he considered excessive.

The president effusively praised the business leaders as “great people,” yet put them on notice that he was serious about the warnings about moving production overseas that he had issued during his campaign.

“If you go to another country” and cut U.S. jobs “we are going to be imposing a very major border tax” on that product, he told the executives.

Eye on Automakers

Among those in the room was Mark Fields, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co., which canceled plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico after Trump criticized the company during the campaign for plans to move small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico. Ford announced its plan to scrap the Mexico plant hours after Trump posted a tweet threatening to punish automaker General Motors Co. for building a factory in Mexico, though Ford said at the time its decision was unrelated.

No executive from General Motors was included in the breakfast meeting.

Trump mostly projected an optimistic tone Monday. “What we want to do is bring manufacturing back,” he said, highlighting tax-cut plans he said would rev up economic growth.

“We are going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies, and that’s massive,” Trump said.

He suggested that a roll-back of business regulations would be a particular focus of his economic plan, saying his observation has been that “regulation wins” over tax cuts as the more important factor in promoting growth.

Other business leaders at the morning meeting with Trump included Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Inc.; Jeff Fettig, chairman and CEO of Whirlpool Corp.; Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Marillyn Hewson, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp.; and Klaus Kleinfeld, chairman and CEO of Arconic Inc.

Also participating were Mario Longhi, president and CEO of United States Steel Corp.; Elon Musk, chairman and CEO of Tesla Motors Inc.; Kevin Plank, CEO and founder of Under Armour Inc.; Mark Sutton, chairman and CEO of International Paper Co.; and Wendell Weeks, chairman and CEO of Corning Inc.

BRITISH ECONOMY

 

Copyright: Bloomberg.

13 Companies prequalified for Mexico’s oil industry Round 2.1

/

As of January 16, 13 companies have initiated the prequalification process for Round 2.1, the shallow water exploration and extraction contract auction process that Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) intends to award in June 19 of this year. According to CNH’s website, the companies are:

  • US: Chevron, Conoco Philips, Hunt Overseas Oil Company, Noble Energy.

  • UK: BP, Premier Oil Exploration and Production, Shell (UK-Netherlands)

  • México: Citla Energy E&P, Sierra O&G.

  • Germany: Dea Deutsche Erdoel AG.

  • Italy: ENI.

  • Norway: Statoil.

The auction, originally planned for March 22, was postponed until June after CNH received formal requests from four interested companies. The R02-L01 process will tender 15 shallow water fields in the Gulf of Mexico, in the areas of Tampico-Misantla, Veracruz and the Southeastern Basin. The fields have an average 592 km2 area and 1,587 million boe in prospective resources. The first oil and gas production from these fields is expected to be delivered in 2020. A total of 23 companies have expressed interest in the process. The final companies that will participate in the auction will be announced by CNH on March 1.

Enero NRGI_Broker_fianzas_sector_energetico-mexico-e1485213169858

 

 

Copyright: Oil and gas mexico