MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico will soon offer investment opportunities in more of its mature oil fields and network of refineries, its energy minister told Reuters on Friday, adding that she did not believe low global energy prices were an obstacle to the plans.
However, Mexico was not considering reopening the auctions for new oil fields favored by many private and foreign companies, Energy Minister Rocio Nahle said in an interview.
A close confidant of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Nahle emphasized that the government was not planning to cut crude production from state-owned oil company Pemex, even at its most expensive oilfields, amid a severe decline in global prices over the past month.
“All producing countries are maintaining output levels… Pemex is also doing that,” said Nahle, who also heads the Pemex board.
She also said there were no plans to suspend expensive infrastructure plans including the new $8 billion Dos Bocas oil refinery currently under construction.
Heavily indebted Pemex, which is teetering on the edge of a fresh downgrade by credit rating agencies, has suffered 15 consecutive years of falling oil output despite relatively low production costs in its mostly offshore portfolio of projects.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Additional reporting by Adriana Barrera and Marianna Parraga; Editing by Marguerita Choy for Reuters).
Source: Reuters
