Mexican regulators okay updated plans for state-owned players

Mexican hydrocarbons regulator CNH has approved an update by Pemex to its exploration plan for the Uchukil area off the coast of Tabasco state.

Under the new plan, Pemex will invest US$333mn over the next three years under the base scenario, with investment potentially rising to US$507mn under the incremental scenario. The investment would mostly be directed towards spudding up to 12 wells.

The Uchukil area. Source: CNH.

The updated plan includes additional 3D seismic activity, the conduction of 24 new studies and spudding four new wells for a total of eight wells under the base scenario. The incremental scenario would add one new spudding to the previous three under the prior incremental scenario.

Meanwhile, energy regulator CRE broke six months of permitting paralysis by rubber-stamping two permits requested by public utility CFE two months after they were submitted. The CRE also approved four permits requested by Mexican private firm Veolus between October and December of 2019.

All of the permits awarded pertained to natural gas-fired power plants.

The CRE has a backlog of over 50 generation permits requested by a number of private players. While the regulator is supposed to take 60 days to review a request, some of them have been pending since the first half of 2019, according to local daily Expansión.

During an extraordinary session on Tuesday afternoon, the CNH also approved two requests presented by Total México to modify two of exploration contracts, CNH-R03-L01-G-CS-02/2018 and CNH-R03-L01-AS-CS-06/2018, to grant a 15% interest to Qatar Petroleum.

Both of these shallow-water blocks are located off the coast of Tabasco state.