Mexican President Lopez Obrador Suspends Oil Auctions For 3 Years

Mexico's new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday announced that he was suspending oil auctions for three years in order to boost national production, clarifying, however, that contracts awarded under the 2013 energy reform would not be canceled.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th December, 2018) Mexico's new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday announced that he was suspending oil auctions for three years in order to boost national production, clarifying, however, that contracts awarded under the 2013 energy reform would not be canceled.

"We are not going to cancel contracts. What we want is for those who received them to demonstrate that they will invest and produce ... We're going to have a three-year truce so that there is investment. We don't want investment titles that are only used for speculation. We want them to produce and we need them to � production is falling," the president, who took office on Saturday, said at his daily morning press conference, as quoted by the Financial Times newspaper.

Lopez Obrador pointed out that Mexican oil company Pemex would invest more in oil production, adding that in the coming days drilling of new wells would begin. He also said that the operation of wells where drilling had previously been canceled would resume.

In March 1938, President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized the country's oil industry. In 2013, reform in the energy sector reform began, under which access to private and foreign investment was allowed. Russia's Lukoil is among the companies currently working in Mexico.