MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican president wants more investment from oil companies before awarding new contracts

Lopez Obrador said this week he will use the three-year break to evaluate how much investment and production are actually produced by the foreign firms

Mexico’s new president says he will take a three-year break from awarding new oil exploration contracts in order to judge the results of contracts already awarded.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he wants more investment from private firms that have been awarded concessionary exploration contracts under reforms enacted by his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto.

Lopez Obrador said this week he will use the three-year break to evaluate how much investment and production are actually produced by the foreign firms that bid on offshore blocks of oil fields.

He complained the firms haven’t invested much and haven’t produced any oil. He pledged not to cancel existing contracts.

Falling production forced the previous government to loosen the grip of Mexico’s state-owned oil company, which doesn’t have enough money to develop deep-water fields.