International Energy Law - Comision Reguladora de Energia
We served as the principal advisor to the Mexican government regulatory agency, the Comision Reguladora de Energia (CRE), in charge of privatizing and regulating domestic Mexican natural gas sales, and natural gas transportation, distribution, and storage in Mexico. Among other things, we provided analysis and drafting with respect to:
- the Mexican law that created and empowered the CRE
- the Reglamento (that is, regulatory rules and structure) that now governs natural gas sales, transportation, distribution, and storage in Mexico
- the bidding and permitting processes used to authorize and regulate transportation pipelines and distribution networks
- the rate and price orders and methodologies for domestic Mexican natural gas sales, and transportation, distribution, and storage service
- the methods and procedures for privatizing Mexican government-owned transportation lines and distribution systems and portions thereof
Critical issues on these matters were:
- assuring that the Mexican government received fair value for state resources
- designing bidding and regulatory systems that are attractive to private investors and conducive to the development of competitive markets
Perhaps the most significant element of our work with the CRE was to provide objective and experienced advice as to the pros and cons of the many public policy issues and options for evolving from a centrally planned, owned, and controlled gas market structure to a more competition driven system that includes private sector ownership and control of facilities and activities previously reserved to the Mexican state through Pemex.
On other matters, our work for the CRE included the review and analysis of all aspects of natural gas transportation permits, general terms and conditions for the provision of natural gas transportation service, general terms and conditions for sales by Pemex of domestic Mexican gas within Mexico, gas transportation contracts for very significant Mexican natural gas transportation pipelines, and gas supply arrangements for petrochemical complexes.