Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 47 2022

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Pemex reportedly paying fines

rather than fixing methane leaks

MEXICO’S national oil company (NOC) Additionally, the source said, company man-
Pemex has been paying fines for violating envi- agers would prefer instead to focus on ramping
ronmental regulations rather than rectifying its up output in order to meet the production goals
underlying deficiencies, two senior company set by Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez
sources told Reuters last week. Obrador.
They noted that the NOC had taken this Pemex’s next move will be to appeal against
approach because it had been more concerned all four fines, though it is not clear when it
with avoiding delays in production than intends to do so, Reuters reported. While the
with fixing these problems. company is seeking to meet the Mexican pres-
Since the beginning of the year, they reported, ident’s output target, it is also contradicting the
the state-owned oil company has been fined four climate change rhetoric of Mexico’s leaders, who
times for its failure to comply with development are due to attend the COP27 summit later in the
plans for two of its own largest natural gas fields week to discuss how oil and gas companies can
– Ixachi, a site in Veracruz State, and Quesqui, a contribute to the transition to a low-carbon
site in Tabasco. economy. ™
Reuters had reported in August, when the
first penalty was imposed, that the CNH had
fined Pemex MXP42mn ($2mn) for environ-
mental violations at Ixachi. Last week, a source
with direct knowledge of the matter said that
the company could be obliged to pay as much
as MXP120mn ($6.2mn) for the two latest fines,
one of which is the single highest monetary pen-
alty ever levied by the CNH.
Pemex’s decision to accept fines over envi-
ronmental fixes led to the flaring of significant
volumes of gas. As such, it is a major blow to
the nation’s oil and gas regulator, the National
Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH), which has
been working to prevent the NOC from wasting
natural resources and contributing in a negative
way to climate change.
According to one source from within the
company, Pemex has been happy to accept the
consequence of paying such fines, as its man-
agement views the monetary values involved as
“small” in relation to the company’s revenues. Some of the incidents for which Pemex was fines occurred at Quesqui (Image: CNH)

NFE and Pemex finalise strategic

partnership deal for Lakach project

US-BASED New Fortress Energy (NFE) said Pemex’s contractor for the development and
on November 22 that it had finalised a strategic operation of the Lakach field. Under the agree-
partnership agreement with Mexico’s national ment, the US company will complete the devel-
oil company (NOC) Pemex covering Lakach, a opment of Lakach via the provision of various
deepwater natural gas field located off the coast services, including the drilling and completion
of Veracruz state. of seven offshore wells and the deployment of
In a statement, NFE said it would serve as the Sevan floating LNG (FLNG) unit to the field.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 23•November•2022