"To be honest, I don’t know what the strategy was behind Pemex’s acquisition of Repsol shares. I don’t understand it. If I would have had to choose, I would have invested in a project in Brazil, in order to learn more about deepwater, because I don’t believe that Spain can teach Mexico anything about the oil and gas industry. "

"Pemex’s investment in Repsol can firstly be seen as a financial investment. It is not the explicit mandate of Pemex to look for such investments, but it is not restricted in doing so. It can also be seen as a way to accelerate the adoption of technology. Repsol is already active in deepwater and Pemex stands to learn from this. Given the restrictions that Pemex has in terms of access to collaborations with companies that have deepwater experience, it could be a great benefit for the NOC to see how Repsol operates and takes decisions. Although there were certainly other companies Pemex could have done this with, the already-existing tight commercial relationship between the two companies made the decision a logical one."

"The recent Pemex acquisition of Repsol shares shows that the NOC wants to become a strong partner with a company in order to start developing its expertise on deepwater projects, so it can acquire the know-how it cannot acquire on Mexican soil because of constitutional impediments. What Mexico needs to do is start becoming very active as an apprentice of state or international companies that have interesting projects of that kind. But it needs to do it now."

"On a strictly financial basis it was a good idea, Pemex bought those shares at an incredibly low price, which shows good business sense. People have criticized the fact that Pemex used money that could have been invested into other things here in Mexico to make this deal, but as a corporate decision it was an intelligent one.

However, as a political decision, increasing Pemex’s stake in Repsol looks less good. There are two dimensions to that. One is that Pemex and the government clearly did not anticipate the reaction in Spain to the news, and secondly they did not fully anticipate the reaction in Mexico. Overall, the initial reaction here in Mexico has been positive. People from across the political spectrum have come out in favour of the deal. However, that initial position was subsequently weakened, and Pemex should have done a much better job at explaining to the Mexican and Spanish public and Repsol shareholders exactly what the purpose of the deal was, and to make it seem like a less threatening exercise.

Looking back, the handling of public relations was a nightmare; it was badly handled both in Spain and in Mexico. Everyone was asking themselves why Pemex was actually doing this, why they were spending billions of dollars to buy these shares. There was no thought about preparing the way. Repsol, on the other hand, has done a terrific job on the public relations front, raising this spectre of the Mexican NOC taking the company over, and Spain losing a national champion. While it wasn’t a bad idea, it turned out horrible"

"A very interesting example of Pemex’s recent development is the move to increase its stake in Repsol. There was definitely an economic rationale behind the move, which Pemex hopes will allow it to take control of an entity for ten times less the level of investment that would be needed for doing exactly the same with an equivalent company. In addition, the move will allow Pemex to acquire exactly the capabilities they need for deepwater exploration. They are also exercising some geopolitical muscle. I believe moves like this are indicative of the way that Pemex wants to develop. It is much more sophisticated than the Pemex of old, not simply thinking what is needed technically for each field, but planning in a very strategic manner."