Growing pains ahead for Mexico's reforms
Regulators have won high praise from the industry for progress to date, but the oil opening is still in its early days and fresh obstacles lie ahead
After a rocky start, Mexico's oil reforms have gathered pace, with a series of successful bid rounds capped off by a major shallow-water discovery this summer by Houston-based Talos Energy. The find vindicated much of what the reformers had argued all along. Talos and its partners not only brought fresh capital into Mexico, it also brought fresh ideas. Armed with the same geological data Pemex has been sitting on for years, Talos looked afresh at the area off Tabasco State and spotted the Zama prospect, which initial drilling has shown could hold as much as 2bn barrels of crude, one of the industry's largest finds this decade. But the discovery comes with a hitch—one that points to the next
Also in this section
26 April 2024
While the US has been breaking records for its premium grade crude, there are doubts over whether you can have too much of a good thing
26 April 2024
Slowing demand growth and capacity expansions will squeeze refiners in coming years
25 April 2024
Some companies with assets in Israel have turned towards Egypt as tensions escalate, but others are holding firm despite rising tensions
24 April 2024
But even planned exploration activity is unlikely to reverse declining output from mature fields