Mexico’s first licensing round

The Mexican government held the first in a series of petroleum auctions in mid-July to help open the energy industry, aiming to bring in an estimated $62.5bn by 2018 and increasing annual output by 500,000 b/d. These exploration and production contracts are the first since President Lazaro Cardenas nationalised the fields in 1938, and will end the monopoly of state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

The government hopes the auctions can reverse a decade-long decline in crude output. (Petroleum Review will be taking a closer look at the Mexican energy sector in its September issue.)