Mexico’s “Silence Law” Demoted OTC Discussion of Oil Reform – Energia.com
May 20 2018 - 04:56PM
Business Wire
A report on Mexico’s profile at the Offshore Technology
Conference (OTC) has been published by Mexico Energy Intelligence®
(MEI), a Houston-based digital publication dedicated to regulatory,
commercial and institutional developments in the Gulf of
Mexico.
OTC is the premier global conference for the oil and gas
industry. This year it was attended by some 70,000 delegates,
speakers and exhibitioners from more than 100 countries. Its
speakers come from the top ranks of industry, government and
academia.
The report tells how Mexico’s “Silence Law” indirectly nixed
discussion of the unprecedented opening of the country’s oil and
gas resources to private investment. In fewer than 3 years,
Mexico’s National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH) held 8 lease
auctions and awarded 107 contracts to nearly 80 companies from a
dozen countries. What has been the experience of bidders and Pemex
partners? What is the outlook for production and policy continuity?
What could be improved? Such questions would ordinarily be the
focus of OTC panels.
This year, however, a uniquely Mexican restriction of speech
interfered with OTC programming. A “Silence Law” prohibits
officials from speaking in public during the 3 months prior to a
presidential election about their accomplishments. Prudently or
otherwise, officials interpreted this law to include OTC. Given the
unavailability of high-level government speakers, OTC decided to
eliminate panels that would assess the success and misalignments of
the upstream reforms.
Although absent from the program, Mexico was not absent from the
premises. Pemex had a booth in the main exhibition hall and there
was a Mexico Pavilion in an adjacent building.
Ulises Hernández was a last-minute, breakfast speaker on the
final day. He spoke of Pemex’s plans to develop its portfolio and
to seek partners for frontier plays. Ernesto Ríos, director of
Mexico Petroleum Institute, said it could serve as a bidder’s
engineering partner in a lease auction. The presentations showed
the expanding commercial ambitions of these government
agencies.
One panel on investments in the Gulf of Mexico featured a
real-time survey via a cellphone app. One question asked about the
“biggest inhibitor to unleashing Mexico’s oil potential.” 67%
answered “political uncertainty.”
“Beyond matters concerning Mexico, OTC 2018 was another
all-you-can-eat buffet of learning and networking opportunities
regarding energy law, regulation and technology,” observed George
Baker, MEI’s publisher.
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Mexico Energy Intelligence®George Baker, (832) 434-3928
cellg.baker@energia.comwww.energia.com