Slim Calls Lakach "Irrational" Ends Partnership With PEMEX

Grupo Carso’s Carlos Slim has declared the US$1.88 billion Lakach deepwater gas field project technically and financially irrational, confirming that his company never deployed capital or began operations despite signing a formal contract with PEMEX. Slim's exit marks the third collapse of a partnership to develop the field, which holds 847.9 billion cubic feet of gas reserves but faces steep technical hurdles 900 meters below the Gulf of Mexico. This development intensifies Mexico's energy security challenge, as the country imports over 80% of its natural gas, shifting the upstream focus toward lower-cost onshore alternatives like the Ixachi field and the federal evaluation of unconventional extraction in northern basins.

Carlos Slim, Chairman, Grupo Carso, declared on Tuesday at his foundation's annual press conference in Mexico City that the Lakach deepwater gas field is "irrational" and that his company effectively never entered the project. Asked whether Grupo Carso would exit its agreement with PEMEX, Slim said “we never entered,” adding that after reviewing the project's viability, they considered it “irrational."

The statement closes, at least for now, what would have been Mexico's first deepwater natural gas production project. It also marks the third time in a decade that a major partnership to develop Lakach has collapsed and adds a new dimension to the country's natural gas dependency challenge.

Grupo Carso and PEMEX did sign a formal Comprehensive Exploration and Extraction Service Contract (CSIEE) for the Lakach field in July 2024, under which Grupo Carso committed to a minimum work plan and an investment program reaching US$1.88 billion, while PEMEX retained ownership of the field and its reserves. What Slim appears to mean is that Carso never began physical field operations or deployed capital; he added that the company conducted studies. “PEMEX had already advanced, had a big investment and the materials, but ultimately it was not developed,” he said, confirming that due diligence work was conducted but execution never commenced. The contract existed; the investment did not follow.

Slim’s Objection

Slim's argument was that Lakach sits 65km from shore at a depth of approximately 900m, conditions that make extraction technically demanding and capital-intensive. He compared the field's expected output unfavorably to what could be achieved with four onshore wells at the Ixachi field, which he said would yield an equivalent volume of gas at a fraction of the complexity and investment. "PEMEX had made a significant investment there, but it turns out to be irrational when four wells at Ixachi yield the same amount," Slim said.

He added that the same gas could be accessed onshore, and that for the moment he was not seeking further projects with PEMEX. That last remark, offered in passing, may carry more weight than the Lakach comment itself: it signals a broader pause in Grupo Carso's ambitions in the upstream segment.

Slim also used the press conference to frame PEMEX as Mexico's most important current problem. He stated that the country has several challenges but that perhaps the most important is the low level of petroleum production and the situation of PEMEX, opening his annual remarks with a direct diagnosis of the state company that few businesspeople in Mexico would deliver so publicly.

A Field That Has Been Abandoned Three Times

Lakach was discovered in June 2006 when PEMEX drilled the Lakach-1 well at a water depth of 988m, establishing it as the NOC's deepest well at the time. The field, located approximately 90km from the port of Veracruz, holds estimated recoverable gas reserves of approximately 847.9Bcf, with condensate liquids of more than 3.5MMb.

The field has been shelved twice before Carso's involvement. PEMEX suspended the project in 2016 after costs proved unmanageable under prevailing gas prices. The NOC then signed an agreement with US company New Fortress Energy in 2022 to resume development, targeting first production in early 2024, but that partnership collapsed in late 2023 when NFE sought conditions that PEMEX officials deemed unacceptable, including the purchase of gas at an exceptionally low price.

Grupo Carso entered the picture in July 2024, signing the CSIEE with PEMEX and committing to an investment program of US$1.88 billion, with first production originally targeted for December 2026. Slim himself acknowledged the complexity from the outset, stating publicly that the project required "one, two, or three" specialist firms in the world capable of executing it. In October 2025, a Carso executive confirmed the company was reviewing the project's viability as gas pricing conditions and technical parameters were reassessed. That review, it is now clear, concluded negatively, and no capital was ever deployed.

The Gas Dependency Context

Slim's exit from Lakach arrives at a moment when Mexico's natural gas import dependency is under sharper scrutiny than at any point in years. SENER’s Minister Luz Elena González has stated publicly that Mexico imports more than 80% of the gas it consumes, the vast majority from the United States via Texas pipelines, and that this dependency is a central driver of the government's interest in unconventional gas development, including the fracking evaluation currently underway through a scientific committee convened by President Sheinbaum.

Slim himself offered a preferred alternative: onshore fields such as Ixachi, which he argued could deliver equivalent gas volumes without the deepwater complexity and cost structure that makes Lakach unviable at current prices and technical conditions. That framing aligns with the broader argument being made by proponents of the unconventional gas program in the Burgos Basin, where the geology resembles Texas' Eagle Ford formation and the infrastructure challenge is land-based rather than subsea.

Onshore on the Horizon

SENER has described fracking as "a possibility," not a decision, while a scientific panel convened by President Sheinbaum and led by UNAM President Leonardo Lomelí evaluates whether next-generation hydraulic fracturing techniques could be deployed in northern basins without the environmental costs associated with conventional methods. The panel, which includes experts from IPN, UAM, IMP, and state universities in Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Veracruz, was given up to two months from its April formation to issue recommendations.

The Burgos and Sabinas basins in Coahuila, which share geological characteristics with Texas' prolific Eagle Ford formation, are the primary focus of that evaluation, and Coahuila Governor Manolo Jiménez has actively promoted the program as a regional economic reconstruction plan in the wake of the AHMSA bankruptcy. Slim's argument that Ixachi's onshore wells can match Lakach's offshore output at a fraction of the cost and complexity is, in effect, the same economic logic driving the unconventional gas debate, and it points toward the same geography where the Sheinbaum administration is now concentrating its upstream attention.