Growing pains ahead for Mexico's reforms
Regulators have won high praise from the industry for progress to date, but the oil opening is still in its early days and fresh obstacles lie ahead
After a rocky start, Mexico's oil reforms have gathered pace, with a series of successful bid rounds capped off by a major shallow-water discovery this summer by Houston-based Talos Energy. The find vindicated much of what the reformers had argued all along. Talos and its partners not only brought fresh capital into Mexico, it also brought fresh ideas. Armed with the same geological data Pemex has been sitting on for years, Talos looked afresh at the area off Tabasco State and spotted the Zama prospect, which initial drilling has shown could hold as much as 2bn barrels of crude, one of the industry's largest finds this decade. But the discovery comes with a hitch—one that points to the next

Also in this section
11 February 2025
Improving compliance among the group and wider group is offset by production increases in outliers Libya, Venezuela and Iran
10 February 2025
The country wants to kickstart its upstream but first needs to persuade investors to foot the bill
10 February 2025
The February 2025 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
7 February 2025
The history of tin production and prices offers a preview of the future oil market. If correct, $35/bl could become the new normal for crude for several years without further OPEC+ intervention