MEXICO CITY/VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico, Aug 18 (Reuters) -
Mexico’s state oil monopoly Pemex awarded its first-ever
private oil-field operating contracts on Thursday as the
company seeks to kick-start foreign investment in the
nationalized energy sector.

British energy services firm Petrofac (PFC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) won the right
to operate two of the three mature oil fields up for grabs, and
Mexico’s Administradora de Proyectos de Campo (APC) won the
third.

MEXICO CITY/VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico, Aug 18 (Reuters) -
Mexico’s state oil monopoly Pemex will award its first-ever
private oil-field operating contracts on Thursday in a move the
company hopes will kick-start foreign investment in the
nationalized energy sector.

Seventeen companies are in the race to run three of
Mexico’s mature oil fields but many others are watching on the
sidelines to see how the process will play out, with an eye to
more lucrative deep water contracts promised for next year.

TOLUCA, Mexico (Reuters) – Few people had heard of the ‘Hand with Eyes’ before the drug gang dumped a severed head in a working class neighborhood outside Mexico City.

A crudely scrawled message at the crime scene in March said, “‘The Hand with Eyes’ takes its time but never forgets. Last chance to get the hell out of the Valle de Mexico.”

MEXICO CITY, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Copper mining giant Grupo
Mexico raised its stake in Mexican airport operator Grupo
Aeroportuario del Pacifico (GAP) to nearly a quarter, even as
its takeover bid languishes in court battles.

Grupo Mexico (GMEXICOB.MX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which runs mines in Mexico,
Peru and the United States as well as Mexico’s largest
railroad, wants to expand its transportation business and has
been buying shares in GAP since 2009.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Mexico’s oil regulator on
Tuesday rejected the Pemex development plan for fields at the
Chicontepec oil project, saying it is not yet ready for
production as the state oil monopoly claims.

The recently created National Hydrocarbons Commission,
which gives official recommendations to Pemex [PEMEX.UL], said
the Agua Fria-Coapechaca field has an unacceptably low outlook
for oil recovery and needs more technological development.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Controlling shareholders at
Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (GAP)
are fighting a takeover bid by copper mining company Grupo
Mexico that is mired in a complicated court battle.

Grupo Mexico (GMEXICOB.MX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has steadily been buying shares
of GAP, so far acquiring a 23 percent stake, even though GAP’s
bylaws say no non-controlling shareholder should own more than
10 percent of the company.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – An explosion ripped through Mexico’s second-largest oil refinery on Saturday, causing a massive fire and killing two workers, though production was not affected, state oil monopoly Pemex said.

The explosion occurred at the 315,000 barrel-per-day Tula refinery in central Mexico while the company was running a trial of its visbreaker, a processing unit used in the distillation of crude oil, a Pemex spokesman said.

MEXICO CITY, July 29 (Reuters) – Mexico’s state oil
monopoly Pemex on Friday named the list of companies qualified
to bid on the country’s first-ever oil field operating
contracts in a historic auction to be held in mid-August.

The list of 17 companies includes global players like
Halliburton Co (HAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Schlumberger Ltd (SLB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Repsol
(REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Pacific Rubiales (PRE.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as well as some smaller
operators.

MEXICO CITY, July 27 (Reuters) – Minera Frisco, a mining
company owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, posted a
second-quarter loss on Wednesday, dented by metals hedges even
as gold and silver sales rose.

The company lost 372.5 million pesos ($32 million) in the
April-June period, compared with a profit of 492 million pesos
in the same quarter last year.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – More than 100 oil workers and contractors hired by Mexico’s state oil monopoly Pemex have aided criminal gangs stealing millions of barrels of fuel over the past decade, a document obtained by Reuters shows.

The corrupt workers collaborate with crime gangs, some with links to powerful drug cartels, to hijack tanker trucks or siphon gas, crude oil and jet fuel out of tens of thousands of miles (kilometers) of pipelines snaking across Mexico.