Some terms of a Mexican proposal sent in March to Congress to change hydrocarbons legislation would affect competition in the industry and raise prices for consumers, Mexico’s federal economic competition commission said on April 12.
In a statement, the anti-trust watchdog, known as COFECE, also said that if the initiative is approved, it would generate legal uncertainty in the industry and distort the system of oil permits.
The watchdog also criticized part of the legislation that would modify the country’s hydrocarbons law to allow suspensions of permits, saying that could violate companies’ rights.
The proposed legislation is part of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s efforts to strengthen state control of the energy market at the expense of private capital.
He argues previous administrations skewed the market in favor of business interests and were intent on carving up national oil firm Pemex and power utility the Comision Federal de Electricidad.
COFECE has also criticized previous legislative initiatives on energy put forward by the Lopez Obrador administration.
Recommended Reading
Defeating the ‘Four Horsemen’ of Flow Assurance
2024-04-18 - Service companies combine processes and techniques to mitigate the impact of paraffin, asphaltenes, hydrates and scale on production—and keep the cash flowing.
Tech Trends: AI Increasing Data Center Demand for Energy
2024-04-16 - In this month’s Tech Trends, new technologies equipped with artificial intelligence take the forefront, as they assist with safety and seismic fault detection. Also, independent contractor Stena Drilling begins upgrades for their Evolution drillship.
AVEVA: Immersive Tech, Augmented Reality and What’s New in the Cloud
2024-04-15 - Rob McGreevy, AVEVA’s chief product officer, talks about technology advancements that give employees on the job training without any of the risks.
Lift-off: How AI is Boosting Field and Employee Productivity
2024-04-12 - From data extraction to well optimization, the oil and gas industry embraces AI.
AI Poised to Break Out of its Oilfield Niche
2024-04-11 - At the AI in Oil & Gas Conference in Houston, experts talked up the benefits artificial intelligence can provide to the downstream, midstream and upstream sectors, while assuring the audience humans will still run the show.