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Mexico’s president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from the Morena party --and who will take office on December 1st--, encouraged big oil to step up their role in the production of recently discovered fields as an effort to pick up lagging production, during his first meeting with the sector’s top representatives, on Tuesday.
Obrador’s production target for the next six years is roughly 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) --production currently stands at 1.8 bpd--.
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In 2017, two foreign oil operators Talos and Eni announced the discovery of a major offshore find, which the new Government hints the companies should take the lead on. Additionally, Obrador stated at the event that there are several drilling rigs owned by a few national firms which are not currently producing. For this reason, the state firm Pemex will lead firms in the production revamping effort, according to executives.
Executives present at the meeting (speaking on condition of anonymity), expressed concern about the new government’s intention to give Pemex the contracts because, according to them, this would discourage bigger investments. Yet, 20 idle oil drilling rigs would be put to work in greater capacity by the move announced by the incoming president.
This announcement comes at a time when Obrador and his team are approaching different sectors of society to learn about their needs as well as to communicate the new government’s policy agenda, before taking office on December 1st.
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