Mexico plans to spend the least in nine years to explore for oil, relying instead on foreign companies to help reverse a decade-long decline in production.
Even as President Enrique Pena Nieto announced late Tuesday that Mexico would reduce its investment in Petroleos Mexicanos by 20 percent in 2016, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said the company has no plans to pump less to support oil prices that have plunged by more than half in the past year.
The Mexican state-owned oil producer, which has lost money 11 quarters in a row, is for the first time in 77 years making room for foreign firms to bid for the right to drill in Mexican territory. The reduction of the investment, which was cut $4.1 billion this year amid depressed oil prices, “forces Pemex to accelerate the process of forming partnerships,” according to Alejandra Leon, Mexico City-based analyst with research firm IHS Energy.
“Pemex’s new framework forces it to consummate its independence and to generate its own resources,” Leon said. “This changes its investment strategy.”
