“It’s not contemplated,” Lopez Obrador said at his daily press conference when asked if his government was considering offering auctions for oil and gas blocks in 2020.
He said oil majors had been awarded 110 contracts through auctions under the previous Mexican government and needed to show results through investment and production.
“Of the 1.735 million barrels that were extracted yesterday only 10 000 were extracted by the companies that received the contracts,” he said.
Mexico’s Association of Hydrocarbon Companies (Amexhi), which includes international oil majors, later issued a statement saying the private sector had invested more than US$11 billion.