Mexico City — The administration of Mexico's president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expects to audit upstream contracts and set a position on its energy policy by year's end, one of his top advisers told S&P Global Platts.
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Register NowAlfonso Romo, who is slated to be the chief of staff of Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, said that the incoming administration is going first to audit the upstream contracts awarded in the last three years.
"Everything looks good at the moment, and we hope to further discuss our energy policy starting in September," Romo said late Wednesday on the sidelines of a meeting between AMLO and Mexico's Business Coordinating Council (CEE), the country's largest business confederation.
"We have to see where we are standing today to know where we are heading tomorrow," said Romo, who is leading AMLO's economic transition team along with Carlos Urzua, the man designated to become Mexico's finance minister by the president-elect.
To date, Mexico has awarded 110 blocks over the last three years, including 28 blocks that hold prospective resources of over 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent according to data from Mexico's Energy Secretariat.
After the meeting with the CEE, Lopez Obrador told the press that "there is an environment of mutual trust between the business community and his team."
AMLO said that despite his coalition winning majorities both in the Senate and the Congress, he promised to work alongside the business community and not impose any policies.
Members of the CEE said that AMLO didn't say anything new regarding the future of Mexico's energy sector during his meeting with business leaders, adding that he only reaffirmed his campaign pledge regarding energy.
Lopez Obrador deflected questions, however, regarding the future of energy reforms, saying his administration is going to audit the upstream contracts to date and bring any anomalies to local and international courts and the legislature.
On Wednesday morning, Urzua told Mexican television that nothing will happen to the energy reform and that Lopez Obrador is going to respect all the contracts signed to date that aren't tainted by corruption.
--Staff, newsdesk@spglobal.com
--Daniel Rodriguez, newsdesk@spglobal.com
--Edited by Maurice Geller, maurice.geller@spglobal.com