Pemex in race against time
Mexican NOC faces near-impossible task of hitting ambitious upstream targets while maintaining capital discipline
On the campaign trail in 2018, Mexican president Andres Lopez Obrador promised to bring radical change to the energy sector. He looks set to achieve this—but not necessarily in a positive direction with production languishing and global oil prices spiralling lower. After winning the election, he promptly cancelled future bidding rounds and vowed to resurrect sinking domestic oil production through greater domestic involvement. His commitment was demonstrated by a 13.6pc increase to the E&P capex of Pemex, the state-owned oil company. But the NOC’s full-year performance for 2019 shows the strategy is at risk of failing, even if some of the capex will start paying off in future quarters. P
Also in this section
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
16 February 2026
As the third wave of global LNG arrives, Wood Mackenzie’s director for Europe gas and LNG, Tom Marzec-Manser, discusses with Petroleum Economist the outlook for Europe’s gas market in 2026
