State-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said its board approved budget cuts totaling 62 billion pesos (4.15 billion) and the postponement of some big projects in light of the sharp drop in oil prices.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed on Monday a package of landmark energy reform bills, ending the 76-year-old state monopoly on oil drilling and reopening the sector to foreign companies.
Violence in Mexico could thwart hopes of a budding shale boom, as oil and gas companies operating in Texas may think twice about moving south of the border.
Mexico holds an estimated 545 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas and 13 billion barrels of shale oil, but progress in developing those resources has been slow.
Mexico's state-owned oil giant Pemex has sold the majority of its stake in Spanish energy firm Repsol for approximately 2.2bn Euros with the intervention of Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. Pemex has been a shareholder in Repsol for more than 25 years.
Argentina's YPF CEO Miguel Galuccio proposed on Thursday in Bolivia a G10 of Latin American state owned oil corporations to strengthen their bargaining power based on their resources and development synergy.
Shareholders of Spain's Repsol approved the oil major's 5 billion dollars settlement with Argentina over the 2012 seizure of YPF at an annual meeting on Friday. The agreement had already been approved by the Argentine Congress and by the board of the Spanish company.
Argentina's state oil company YPF announced this week that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a subsidiary of Malaysia's national oil company Petronas for unconventional oil and gas resources development in Argentine Patagonia.
Mexico's government owned oil company Pemex is getting closer to an understanding with YPF after playing a crucial role in brokering a deal between Argentina and Spain regarding the April 2012 seizure from Repsol of a majority stake in YPF. Pemex apparently is interested in having a share at the Vaca Muerta oil and gas shale deposits in Patagonian Neuquén.
The dispute between the Argentine government and Repsol over the seizure of a 51% stake in petroleum company YPF has shown some signs of cooling, with the Ministry of Economy announcing on Monday that an agreement in principle for compensating the Spanish corporation had been reached.
YPF Chief Executive Officer Miguel Galuccio said Argentina’s nationalized energy company is willing to form a partnership with Mexico’s state-run Petroleos Mexicanos to develop shale oil and natural gas deposits in the Vaca Muerta formation.