Page 5 - GLNG Week 37 2022
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GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG
out a deepwater project of this scope and com-
plexity without a foreign partner that has rele- state of Tabasco; and Jose Sanchez Perez, the
vant experience. (The vast majority of Pemex’s chief administrator of the Tehuantepec Isthmus
upstream operating experience comes from Corridor (FIT) railway project, who has a back-
shallow-water fields.) ground in economics.
Moreover, the CNH has generally not At present, none of these candidates is a
responded favourably for Pemex’s requests for known quantity. That is, it is not clear whether
permission to develop fields under service con- any will be more receptive to Pemex’s request for
tracts with third parties. The NOC has indicated permission to proceed with development under
that it hopes to sign at least 30 service contracts a service contract with NFE.
for various projects, but so far the commission However, Lopez Obrador’s policy preferences
has not given a green light to any of them. are fairly well known. The president has been
a champion of Pemex – and a champion of the
Filling a seat at CNH idea that the state-owned company ought to take
There could change in the near future, as Roge- a leading role in the oil and gas industry. Presum-
lio Hernandez Cazares, the leader of the CNH, ably, then, his preferred candidates would be
resigned unexpectedly at the end of August, sympathetic to this view and would, therefore,
stepping down before the end of his seven-year be more willing than Hernandez to approve the
term, which began in 2020. NOC’s plans.
Natural Gas Intelligence reported on Septem- Even so, it will take some time to move
ber 12 that Mexican President Andres Manuel through the appointment and approval process,
Lopez Obrador had drawn up a shortlist of three and CNH cannot convene to discuss devel-
candidates – Romeo Antonio Rojas, Pemex’s opment plans until all of its members can be
deputy head of strategic projects and an engineer present. As such, Pemex will have to wait to find
with experience in extra heavy crude oil projects; out what Hernandez’s replacement thinks of its
Agustin Diaz Lastra, a member of Pemex’s board plan – and that probably means that there is no
of directors and an economist who has also held chance of bringing the field on stream next year,
various public-sector positions in his home as Romero said optimistically in July.
Week 37 16•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5
