Mexico cancels February bidding round on oil concessions

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government has announced that it will cancel a planned round of bidding on oil exploration concessions.

The announcement by the government’s national oil commission is in line with previous statements by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has said he will suspend new bidding for three years until he sees whether private companies are delivering projected investments and production.

The cancelled auctions were scheduled for February and would have involved 37 onshore fields and nine non-conventional fields, a term that usually describes fracking. Lopez Obrador has said fracking will be prohibited in Mexico.

Mexico has already awarded concessions under several rounds of bidding following the 2013 opening of the previously state-monopolized energy sector. But Lopez Obrador contends they have not produced much investment or production to date.