ANÁLISIS Y PROPUESTAS DE POLÍTICAS ENERGÉTICAS PARA EL DESARROLLO DEL MERCADO DE GAS NATURAL EN MÉXICO

Abstract

In 1995, the Mexican government undertook legal reforms in the natural gas sector, promoting productive investment and efficient development of the domestic market. Such legal amendments were possible in the context of a partial liberalization of the natural gas market, the country’s resource availability, an interest in diversifying fuel sources, the low reference prices during that decade, the potential to add value to a byproduct of oil extraction, as well as the potential advantage of using combined-cycle technologies in the electricity sector. Liberalization of the natural gas industry was linked to the wave of economic globalization of the early 1990s, and it certainly introduced changes at a structural level. The liberalization process promoted complementary private sector investment in pipeline transportation, distribution and storage of natural gas, and left Pemex to focus on upstream activities of production and processing of natural gas. An analysis of the country’s recent energy policy that promoted the development of the natural gas market in Mexico, reveals these have lost their initial inertia in the past few years. In order to tackle this problem, a diagnostic of the natural gas market was performed based on the guide for the formulation of the energy policies "Energy and Sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean" written by CEPAL/OLADE/GTZ. That same document allowed the Ministry of Energy’s team to detect changes in the environment and generate specific proposals to further the development of the natural gas market. Though the study detected key strengths in the implementation of the country’s energy policy after the reform, there are still some problems regarding the operation of the natural gas market. Without a doubt, the objective of the diagnostic is to explore how the natural gas market functions within the energy policy, as well as the industry’s linkage to the economy, society, and environment. The diagnostic revealed some key messages about the national energy policy directed to the natural gas market: a need to improve the supply system of natural gas, in order to ensure sustainability over the long-run; meanwhile, in the short term the reactivation of growth in the natural gas market will be linked to the development of infrastructure, improvements in the operation of the market, the elimination of anticompetitive practices, as well as a reduction of subsidies that influence the dynamics of natural gas consumption. In almost all cases, the study proposes a stronger linkage with "sustainable development" within the natural gas market. Surpassing these barriers will enable the country to give a new boost to the development of the natural gas market, ensuring provision, efficiency in the use of natural resources, a strong regard for the environment, and the development of infrastructure and greater access for the population.