The Mexico Energy Week in Retrospect (March 2-10)
Revving up. On March 2, the Energy Secretariat (SENER) published its revamped strategy to drive the country’s oil and gas bidding rounds. The principal changes are to establish standard block sizes, to open all blocks simultaneously for nomination by private parties, and to hold two bidding rounds per year. The three-step nomination scale -- high, middle, low -- will help SENER gauge private-sector interest across the country’s reserves and to rank the latter both domestically and internationally. While nominations are open to anyone as of the announcement, there will be a three-month period prior to the launch of a bidding round for SENER to evaluate which blocks to include. It looks as if SENER is in a hurry to maximize the country’s oil rent. (Source: SENER)