Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 25 2021

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Customs agency says only Pemex may

secure or renew fuel trade permits

MEXICO’S government has taken another step be able to continue operating normally for the
to ensure that Pemex, the national oil company time being.
(NOC), retains its dominance over the hydro- Even so, it will restrict competition in the
carbon sector. downstream sector over time – assuming that
Earlier this month, the national customs it is not overturned or suspended by Mexico’s
agency, known as the Tax Administration Ser- Supreme Court, as has been the case for some of
vice (SAT), declared that Pemex was now the the president’s previous energy initiatives. S&P
only company that would be allowed to secure Global Platts said last week that it did expect
new permits or to renew existing permits for the SAT’s new permit policy to be challenged in
import and export of petroleum products. SAT court and noted that the hydrocarbons law was
made an announcement to this effect on June currently the subject of a lawsuit.
11 and said that the new rules would take effect Even so, Lopez Obrador’s approach has had
on June 14. the effect of paralysing the Mexican energy sec-
This measure is consistent with the Mexican tor, according to Claudio Rodriguez Galán, the
presidential administration’s ongoing campaign head of law firm Thomson & Knight’s office in
to ensure that state-owned companies play the Mexico City. “The energy sector requires legal
leading role in the fuel and energy industry. It certainty, and that has been absent since the gov-
is also in line with Andres Manuel Lopez Obra- ernment began attacking the reform [of 2013-
dor’s efforts to achieve his goals through admin- 2014],” he commented. ™
istrative measures rather than lobbying for a
constitutional amendment that would reverse
the energy reforms adopted by his predecessor
Enrique Peña Nieto in 2013-2014.
The new stance is also more restrictive than
previous initiatives, according to Diego Campa,
a partner at the Mexican law firm Campa and
Mendoza. “This regulation is the most severe
so far, even more so than the recently passed
hydrocarbons law,” said Mendoza, whose firm
is advising a number of companies involved in
the petroleum product trade.
Despite its severity, SAT’s new policy may
not lead to any significant changes in the near
term. The customs agency’s permits have a term
of three years, so many private fuel traders will Pemex has seen oil output drop every year since 2005 (Photo: Pemex)

Senate leader: AMLO’s efforts to amend

constitution likely to be “complicated”

RICARDO Monreal, the majority leader of Mexico’s mid-term parliamentary elections had
Mexico’s Senate, has indicated that he does not affected the president’s chances of successfully
expect President Andres Manuel Lopez Obra- amending the constitution.
dor to have an easy time securing the passage Referring to the fact that Lopez Obrador’s
of a constitutional amendment that gives the political coalition had lost its super-majority in
national power provider advantages over private both houses of the National Congress, he said
electricity suppliers. that building support for the amendment, along
In an interview with Bloomberg earlier with two other proposed changes to the consti-
this week, Monreal noted that the outcome of tution, would be a “complicated” process.

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