Mexico’s Sheinbaum Urged to Pursue Divestments, Partnerships to Strengthen State Oil Company Pemex

On Oct. 1, Claudia Sheinbaum will assume the presidency of Mexico with questions lingering over her potential energy policy. Her academic credentials have raised positive expectations regarding the type of projects that could be a priority under her leadership. Her progressive vision on environmental policies has promised an electric generation matrix more oriented towards clean energy and emphasized its efficient use. This would create important investment opportunities. However, her nationalist profile and apparent ideological baggage could stifle the development of new energy infrastructure.

North American natural gas prices treaded water this week. The New York Mercantile Exchange contract for October was trading at around $2.300/MMBtu on Thursday afternoon, roughly where it was last Thursday.

When a federal judge in Louisiana ruled in July that the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) pause on new worldwide export permits for LNG projects was unlawful, it sparked a series of questions.

As clouds gather around the future of Mexico’s energy industry, experts have presented an analysis of changes to the industry since the implementation of the country’s 2013 reform that unleashed private investment in oil, natural gas and electricity for the first time in more than 75 years.

Transparency in Mexico’s natural gas market would suffer if the country’s Comisión Reguladora de Energía (CRE) were to be dissolved, Alexandra Lara, an independent energy consultant that previously worked with the regulator, told NGI’s Mexico GPI.

North American natural gas futures for October found some momentum late in the week as supplies dipped.