Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog
From OilPrice.com:
Last year, the value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico was US$20.2 billion, while the value of U.S. energy imports from Mexico was only US$8.7 billion, according to the EIA.
On the other hand, Mexico’s oil and gas output is 40 percent off its peak levels, an S&P Global Platts report showed last week. Mexico’s crude oil output of 2 million bpd in June was far below the 2004 peak of 3.4 million bpd, while dry natural gas production is 3.2 Bcf/d this year, compared to a 2010 peak of 5.1 Bcf/d. Mexico, therefore, relies heavily on U.S. pipeline gas and LNG imports.
Mexico is also opening its refined products market to competition as it is unable to meet demand with its own production. Imports of U.S. petroleum products surged by 125 percent annually in the first four months of this year, S&P Global Platts said.
Currently, pipeline imports of U.S. natural gas account for almost 60 percent of Mexico’s natural gas supply, up from 22 percent in 2010. Imports of U.S. natural gas are expected to grow to nearly 70 percent of total supply by 2022, Platts Analytics estimates.
In this supply-demand situation, Texas oil and gas has a lot to gain from energy projects along and across the border. Last year, Texas exported US$93 billion in total goods and services to Mexico and another US$20 billion to Canada, Moseley said in comments about the NAFTA renegotiation objectives. “More than 387,000 jobs in Texas are supported by trade generated by NAFTA,” he noted.