Backlash against Mexico shale tender

Protests have begun in an effort to stop Mexico’s Round 3.3 unconventionals tender from moving forward, local media reported over the weekend.

Last week the National Hydrocarbons Commission announced that nine shale blocks in the state of Tamaulipas would be offered in a public bidding round in early September. Environmentalist groups have criticised the move, as it would allow hydraulic fracturing to be performed in the country for the first time ever.

“We come to denounce the opening of Round 3.3 to deliver areas of the national territory to exploit unconventional gas and oil for fracking,” said Claudia Campero, a member of the Mexican Alliance against Fracking, at a protest in Mexico City. “We demand that as a precautionary principle, this round be stopped.”

Meanwhile, the opposition party in Mexico’s upcoming July elections, the National Regeneration Movement, has also objected to the round, saying that hydraulic fracturing is an environmental and public health hazard. Senator Mario Delgado said that Mexico’s HSE regulations regarding unconventional E&P were insufficient.

Altogether, the blocks to be offered in Round 3.3 hold around 1.16 billion boe of unconventional oil and gas, as well as 53 million boe of conventional resources.