Mexico - District Judge Suspends Amendment of Hydrocarbons Law That Repealed PEMEX’s Asymmetric Regulation

On May 31, 2021, Judge Juan Pablo Gómez Fierro of the Second District Court for Administrative Matters, specialized in Economic Competition, Broadcasting and Telecommunications ("District Judge"), suspended the amendment to the Hydrocarbons Law that repealed PEMEX’s asymmetric regulation.

As explained in our previous Legal Update, the Hydrocarbons Law grants the Regulatory Energy Commission (Comisión Reguladora de Energía, "CRE") the temporary power to regulate the prices and rates of the hydrocarbon sector, but only if the competition conditions in the market are not effective to set the price of the relevant products.  

To remove these controls, Congress repealed the asymmetric regulation regime of First-Hand Sales (ventas de primera mano, “VPM”) because, in their view, there is already enough competition in the regulated markets. As a result, on May 19, the decree that repeals the 13th transitory article of the Hydrocarbons Law was published (the "Decree"). For such purposes, a few days after the enactment of the Decree, the CRE published Directive A/015/2021 to repeal all the remaining directives on asymmetric regulation.

The District Judge granted the suspension of the Decree with general effects to avoid giving an undue benefit to any specific company.

Because of the suspension, the 13th transitory article of the Hydrocarbons Law and the CRE resolutions that had been repealed by the Decree were reinstated, and, among other things, PEMEX will have to use a maximum price in the VPM of PEMEX Industrial Transformation and its storage services.

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Francisco Méndez
fmendez@mayerbrown.com

Vera de Gyarfas
vdegyarfas@mayerbrown.com 

Víctor Delgado
vdelgado@mayerbrown.com