by rockdoc123 » Wed 23 Mar 2016, 21:08:00
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')or whatever reason we used to talk about Mexico oil prospects a lot but lately there hasn't been a whole lot of news that I have seen. Any news I missed ROCKMAN? Or Toolpush, Rockdoc123, and all the other oil industry insiders around here?
Mexico has been hurt by the low oil price much worse than many countries. This is largely due to the fact that Pemex had never achieved any sort of efficiency of operation as seen in North America. Their costs are high a large part of which are costs associated with paying employees reasonably high wages but moreso because of the requirement for large payouts if they lay anyone off. Pemex was struggling to reach greater efficiency when the price dropped. Because oil and gas provide a very large part of the gov'ts annual income they have had to drag more and more money out of Pemex, to the point where Pemex had to release all of the service companies working for them and cut all of their planned programs. Frustration on both Pemex side and gov't side resulted in the head of Pemex getting the heave ho recently.
The bid rounds which were seen to be what would kick off a new era in Mexico oil and gas have not been exactly what was anticipated. The first round had economics that were impossible to work with and it was only a few national oil and gas companies who wanted "feet on the ground" who bid. The second round which was onshore had lots of interest and a fair number of qualified bidders. Unfortunately the way they had orchestrated the bidding process set it up for a big failure. Companies accepted fixed work programs and profit sharing but were required to bid away an extra percentage of "carried" participation to the government. And as has happened previously companies get stupid (eg. Libya bid rounds). Economics I have seen suggested that bidding away much more than 25% interest would render the projects uneconomic when oil was $50/bbl. The companies who won all bid much higher than that with one "brain trust" from Canada bidding 80%! And of course now that prices aren't even near $50 they are expecting to renegotiate these contracts which the Comision Nacional Hydrocarburos (CNH) regulatory body has said will not happen. So in short, a real mess.
Mexico ministry of Energy (SENER) has said they are pushing forward with additional bid rounds but in this environment, unless prices rise I can't see them being too successful. I have heard that SENER and CNH realize the issue with the last bid round and plan to adjust in the upcoming rounds.
The opportunities are there, it's just at $30 - $40 oil it isn't easy to see how anyone can make money.