Mexico’s Influence in the World’s Oil and Gas Supply and Demand

摘要

As of the end of 2004, the share of natural gas in the total world energy demand was approximately 23% having surpassed coal in 2002 and, for the first time, becoming the number two fuel behind oil. Buoyant estimates suggest that the natural gas market share will increase dramatically by the year 2020. Natural gas demand will be greatly influenced by the developed economies, namely the United States, Japan and Europe, the emerging energy super-consumer China and the rapidly developing economies of some of the world’s most populous nations such as Brazil and Mexico. This paper focuses on Mexico. Mexico’s trillion-dollar economy has resulted in its becoming the second largest US trading partner. The purpose of this work is to generate a framework wherein Mexico can develop its internal energy market and still be a strategic partner for energy with the United States. Strategies such as (a) interconnecting pipelines with the United States, (b) exporting LNG, (c) increasing the gas-to-oil ratio from its existing portfolio, and (d) increasing dry-gas exploration efforts are some of the different options that are considered and outlined in this work.