Mexico in full swing
A year of further energy liberalisation and continued upstream and midstream expansion lies ahead
Mexico's oil and gas industry will be completely open to private investment by end-2018. For the first time in almost eight decades, domestic and foreign companies will be allowed to do business throughout the value chain, from oil exploration to service stations. Free entry and exit, competition and transparency will be the new normal. It has been a three-year process to get to this point. After constitutional reform and new secondary legislation that ended Pemex's monopoly over the oil industry, implementation of market reform advanced in gradual steps. It began with exploration and production: in the summer of 2015, offshore blocks in the Gulf of Mexico's shallow waters were auctioned. Tw
Also in this section
5 March 2026
Gas is a central pillar of Colombia’s energy system, but declining production poses a significant challenge, and LNG will be increasingly needed as a stopgap. A recent major offshore gas discovery offers hope, but policy improvements are also required, Camilo Morales, secretary general of Naturgas, the Colombian gas association, tells Petroleum Economist
4 March 2026
The continent’s inventories were already depleted before conflict erupted in the Middle East, causing prices to spike ahead of the crucial summer refilling season
4 March 2026
The US president has repeatedly promised to lower gasoline prices, but this ambition conflicts with his parallel aim to increase drilling and could be upended by his war against Iran
4 March 2026
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed following US-Israel strikes and Iran’s retaliatory escalation, Fujairah has become the region’s critical pressure release valve—and is now under serious threat






