Energy Reform: Implications on the Regulations of Offshore Activities

The 2013 Energy Reform

In recent years, Mexico has taken one of the most important steps towards modernizing its energy sector. During late 2013, Mexican Congress approved the enactment of the Energy Reform, with the purpose of introducing greater flexibility to the national energy market.  While conserving the property of hydrocarbons located in the subsoil, Congress opted for a new model focused on a strategic direction of the industry, in lieu of an obsolete economic model based on the State's full control and operation of most energy related activities.^[1]

The paradigm change has resulted in the issuance of new regulations, as well as the amendment to others, that have established the terms and conditions for the participation of private entities, either national or foreign, in the hydrocarbons industry.^[2]