Slim Dismisses Lakach: The Week in O&G

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.

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Slim's exit marks the third collapse of a partnership to develop the field, which holds 847.9Bcf of gas reserves but faces steep technical hurdles 900m 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.

SENER Keeps Fracking Option Open Pending Scientific Panel Report

Minister of Energy Luz Elena González reiterated at an El Financiero forum that unconventional gas development via hydraulic fracturing remains "a possibility, not a decision", pending recommendations from a presidential scientific panel due within two months of its April formation. The framing is driven by Mexico importing 70% of its natural gas, a resource that produces 65% of its electricity. Sheinbaum publicly acknowledged her prior opposition while citing new extraction technologies as the basis for revisiting the question. Coahuila Governor Manolo Jiménez has framed Gas Coahuila as a post-AHMSA economic reconstruction plan. Over 80 civil society organizations are demanding a Strategic Environmental Assessment and MISSE community consultation before any authorization proceeds, while AMEXHI has tied its conditional endorsement to regulatory certainty, competitive frameworks, and security guarantees.

Moody's Affirms PEMEX at B1, Stable; Standalone Profile Remains at "ca"

Moody's affirmed PEMEX's B1 Corporate Family Rating with a stable outlook on May 22, one day after downgrading Mexico's sovereign to Baa3. The affirmation is not a vote of confidence in PEMEX itself: the B1 is entirely derived from assumptions of very high and timely government support, as it sits five notches above PEMEX's standalone ca Baseline Credit Assessment, the lowest point on Moody's scale. On its own merits, the company posts persistent negative free cash flow, an estimated annual funding gap of US$14.9 billion through 2028, and a production outlook that Moody's describes as stabilized but not structurally reversing. Moody's is explicit that PEMEX's published upstream output has recently stabilized but that current development schemes are unlikely to generate material increases. The B1 would come under immediate downward pressure from any further sovereign downgrade, any reduction in government support assumptions, or a sustained deterioration in operations, conditions that are not currently distant given Mexico's fiscal trajectory.

Víctor Rodríguez Moves From PEMEX to INEEL

Víctor Rodríguez, who stepped down as PEMEX Director General on May 14 after approximately 18 months, has been appointed Director General of INEEL by President Sheinbaum, a return to the academic and research environment that defined his career before the PEMEX appointment. A physicist with a Ph.D. in Energy Economics from Grenoble and over 38 years of academic seniority at UNAM, Rodríguez had accepted the PEMEX post on the explicit condition of a maximum 18-month tenure. Sheinbaum credited him with reducing PEMEX's financial debt and improving its credit outlook, genuine achievements, though the company's structural financial profile remained deeply distressed at departure. The INEEL appointment places him at the helm of the technical institution most central to Mexico's electricity transition agenda, with research spanning grid modernization, offshore wind, geothermal energy, hydrogen vehicles, and AI for electrical systems. His PEMEX successor, Juan Carlos Carpio, took office the same day.