Mexico plays hardball
Regional outlier initially baulked at Opec’s demand to scale back barrels, before bleeding oil revenues forced a rethink
Mexico proved an unusually stubborn negotiator during last week’s Opec+ alliance crisis talks in Vienna. President Andres Lopez Obrador refused to revise down production targets, despite the oil price crash’s heavy financial toll on state oil firm Pemex. Indeed, confidence that Mexico would consent to the cuts was at one point so low that US president Donald Trump weighed in with an offer of support to help it achieve the 10pc supply drop. Mexico eventually accepted a 100,000bl/d reduction, a cut significantly short of the 400,000bl/d that Opec and its allies originally demanded. The decrease represented half the volume pledged by Latin American rival Petrobras, despite the Brazilian company
Also in this section
13 April 2026
Expensive electricity has forced out swathes of energy-intensive industry and now threatens the country’s ability to attract future investment in datacentres and the digital economy
13 April 2026
For GCC producers, the ceasefire may prove more destabilising than the war itself: exports remain constrained, and control over Hormuz has shifted in ways that could endure
9 April 2026
The April 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
9 April 2026
Offshore operators are working through an FID backlog as the rig market consolidates, helped by improving project economics and a renewed security drive
