Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 43 2020

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AMLO dismisses US legislators’

critique of Mexican energy policy

MEXICAN President Andres Manuel Lopez The US legislators also expressed interest in
Obrador has dismissed claims that his govern- preserving the energy reforms adopted in 2013-
ment’s energy policy puts US-based companies 2014 by former President Enrique Peña Nieto.
at an unfair disadvantage. They urged the US president to work with Mex-
On October 24, Lopez Obrador spoke crit- ico’s current government to resolve the matter.
ically about the allegations made by 43 mem- Lopez Obrador has frequently expressed his
bers of the US Congress in a letter addressed to opposition to his predecessor’s energy policy,
US President Donald Trump. He was speaking saying he would rather protect and promote
the day after Reuters published a report that state-owned entities such as Pemex and CFE
included short excerpts from the letter, which than seek more foreign investment. He has
was dated October 22. (Four Congressional also indicated, though, that he prefers to work
sources have confirmed the authenticity of the toward these goals without amending the coun-
letter, according to the news agency.) try’s constitution.
The Mexican leader was particularly dis- The Mexican president spoke out against
missive of the US lawmakers’ assertion that the US lawmakers’ claims shortly after the US
his energy policy contravened provisions of Energy Information Administration (EIA)
the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement noted that US natural gas exports to Mexico
(USMCA), the new bilateral trade deal signed had continued to rise this year, in line with
earlier this year. He pointed out that the USMCA long-standing trends. “These increases have
included two paragraphs that acknowledge more than offset declines in Mexico’s imports
Mexico’s “absolute, sovereign right” to set its of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and relatively
own course on this front. smaller declines in Mexico’s domestic natural
“With much respect, in this matter, we have gas production,” the EIA said in its October 22
not signed any agreement with the government edition of Today in Energy. ™
of the United States or Canada,” he commented
during a visit to northern Mexico.
According to Reuters, the letter in question
referenced reports of a leaked memo in which
Lopez Obrador called for Mexico’s regulatory
agencies to use all of the means available to
uphold the interests of Pemex, the national oil
company (NOC), and Comision Federal de
Electricidad (CFE), the national power provider.
The president’s policy prescriptions represent
“a pattern of obstruction” that could harm US
energy companies working in Mexico, they said.
“These efforts violate and contradict the
spirit, if not the letter, of the USMCA, an agree-
ment among whose primary objectives are to
promote growth among the participant coun-
tries,” they added. The president visited northern Mexico at the weekend (Photo: LopezObrador.org.mx)

IEnova eyes CFE as partner for ECA project

THE Mexican infrastructure firm IEnova has US utility Sempra Energy, said in a recent con-
said it is interested in teaming up with the state- ference call that the terminal would help CFE
run power provider CFE for the Energía Costa to use its transport capacity at the national grid
Azul (ECA) project, which will involve the con- better. “We have a strong and constructive rela-
struction of a natural gas liquefaction plant at the tionship with CFE,” IEnova’s CEO Tania Ortiz
site of an existing LNG regasification terminal. Mena said during the company’s third-quarter
IEnova, which is the Mexican subsidiary of conference call, according to S&P Global Platts.

Week 43 29•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11