There are still few private oil companies that contribute to the national production of crude.
With the exception of last year – derived from the health emergency due to coronavirus -, month by month, since 2016, private companies have increased their production on a recurring basis until reaching its historical maximum last April, with 61,501 barrels per day, according to information reported by the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).
But this figure is still supported by a small fist of all companies that were awarded the right to extract crude, during the oil rounds or by signing a contract with the state-owned Pemex and, in the majority, the state oil company still has a significant percentage of participation.
Only seven companies have a daily production of more than 1,000 barrels of oil, according to information from the hydrocarbon market regulator.
The increased production of these oil companies has led to the oil extracted by private companies representing 3.47% of the national crude production, from the 0.05% that it represented in 2016, when the first contract migrations took place and the regulator began to record the count of private participation.
Perenco Mexico
Perenco M̩xico, which in 2018 acquired 49% of Petrofac, is the company that leads the list of private companies that contribute the most to crude oil production, although the project that reports production has the state-owned Pemex as its financial partner Рwith 64% participation in the project -, according to CNH records.
What is reported by the oil company represents 33.7% of the total reported by private companies. All of the crude is produced in Santuario-El Golpe, an onshore field located in Cárdenas and Comalcalco, Tabasco and whose contract was migrated in 2017.
Santuario-El Golpe reported its first production in December 2017 and in about 38 months it has increased its production from 3,138 to 20,728 barrels per day last April.
ENI
The Italian ENI was the first private company that managed to start production after the oil rounds derived from the energy reform, in July 2019. And in almost two years it has positioned itself as the second oil company that adds the most production.
The company reported its highest point of crude extraction in the Mistón field in June of last year – during the first months of the pandemic in the country – with 18,696 barrels of oil per day, although these numbers have had a slight setback in recent years. months.
In April, the company extracted 14,770 barrels a day of oil, which represents about 24% of the total generated by private companies.
The goal of the Italian, as announced when it began its production, is to achieve a daily figure of 100,000 barrels per day, but the latest numbers reported by the regulator place the company in a scenario still far from its first projections.
Hokchi Energy
The consortium between the Argentine Panamericana Energy and E&P Hidrocarburos reported its first production in May 2020 and within a year it has already become the third private oil company that contributes the most to crude oil extraction.
Its production, stemming from a contract that was awarded in round 1.2, has grown rapidly. Just in May 2020 it added a production of 325 barrels a day and last April, almost a year later, it already reported 6,536 barrels a day, its highest figure since the beginning of its operation.
Hokchi’s production already represents 10.6% of total private production and the consortium, as reported, aims to more than double its latest figure this year.
Diavaz
The Mexican Diavaz, a company specialized in oil services and an old acquaintance of the state-owned Pemex, is in charge of three contracts derived from migration processes that place it as the fourth company that adds the most crude production.
With three of the four fields it operates, Ébano, Miquetla and Barcodón, the company reports a production of 6,183 barrels per day, which has remained in that margin for at least the last year.
Diavaz was one of the few companies – in addition to Lifting, owned by Cotemar – that managed to transform from a company that offered services to Pemex to an oil producer, one of the goals of the 2013 energy reform.
The company’s financial partner is state-owned Pemex in Miquetla and Ébano. And it is this last field that contributes the most to Diavaz’s production, with about 80% of the total reported by the company.
Controversy and explanation
Oil production by private parties has become one of the main sources of dispute between the private sector and the federal administration.
At the beginning of the six-year term, President Andrés López Obrador decided to cancel the oil rounds under the argument that private production is still minimal and put “an increase in the figures” as a condition for resuming the model derived from the energy reform.
So far this six-year term, oil companies have almost doubled their production, from 31,373 barrels a day in December 2018 to the 61,501 reported until last April. But the federal government has not yet shown signs of resuming the private investment instrument.
The private companies, grouped in the Mexican Hydrocarbons Association, have argued that the low oil production derives from the fact that the vast majority of contracts awarded to private companies are still in the exploration phase and their benefits will be perceived in the long term.
“At Amexhi we are convinced that the model of rounds and associations has been successful to the extent that the Mexican State has not assumed the risk of exploring. On the contrary, it earns the compensation generated from industrial activity, which it can reinvest. in its public policy plans to generate well-being, “the organization said in a statement during the first months of the federal administration.
