•REJECTION Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected comments by a US State Department official about the reported wrangling for control of the Zama oilfield currently operated by US company Talos Energy as part of a larger private consortium.
•CONCERN Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex was vying to take control of the Zama oilfield discovery -just adjacent to a separate Pemex-owned block. A US State Department official, Deputy Assistant Secretary Kurt Donnelly, expressed concern later.
•INTERVENTION “It’s a deposit that is shared with Pemex and there’s no problem. It”s just a matter that they are better informed about this. Plus with all due respect: Why is the State Department intervening?”, said López Obrador, who’s career was built on strong nationalism.
•CONTRACTS During an energy conference at the Inter-American Dialogue on Wednesday, Donnelly said that the possibility of Pemex taking over the control of the Zama oilfield from the consortium led by Talos Energy was a “disturbing development”; Pemex and the consortium are in negotiations.
