MEXICO CITY: A company controlled by Mexico’s richest person, Carlos Slim, is investing US$1.2bil to develop a vast field in the Gulf of Mexico that is expected to produce gas around 2026, a potential model for how Mexico’s state oil company will work with private enterprise.
Slim’s Grupo Carso SAB agreed to a deal with Mexico’s state-run Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to explore and extract from Lakach, a deepwater field discovered in 2007 about 98km southeast of the city of Veracruz. Pemex will own the field and its reserves, while Grupo Carso will build an inland facility to store and process the gas and condensates.
Under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose term ends in September, the Mexican government has reasserted state control of the energy industry, but production and exploration have slowed with less private investment.
Slim is succeeding at finding ways to work with Pemex where others have been unable to move forward. Last year Pemex scrapped a similar agreement to develop Lakach with New Fortress Energy Inc.
In December, Lopez Obrador praised a Carso agreement to acquire stakes in two oil fields, “because it stays in the hands of Mexicans and I’m sure that they’re going to invest to extract crude.”
Lopez Obrador’s successor, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, has said she will work with private investors in energy while insisting that Mexico’s natural resources belong to the people. Carso will team with Houston-based Talos Energy Inc and a local unit of Spain’s Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA to develop Lakach. Slim owns stakes in both companies.
While most of his US$93.3bil fortune comes from his telecommunications company, America Movil SAB, Slim has been investing in energy projects such as the construction of offshore platforms for more than a decade. — Bloomberg
