WASHINGTON — Mexico’s energy reforms and contracting of oil coverage allowed a cushioning effect of the impact of the fall in international oil prices, said the International Energy Affairs Special Envoy Amos Hochstein, Thursday.
At a hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the House of Representatives, the U.S. State Department official said that Mexico had bad luck in that crude prices fell 55 percent internationally, six months after approval of energy reforms.
“The Mexican government faces the challenge of proving that the negative impacts felt throughout the sector are not a result of reforms but the decline in oil prices,” Hochstein said in his testimony.
“The ability to overcome these challenges Mexico will probably be a judgment on its reforms, both within the country and throughout the hemisphere,” he added.
Hochstein said the United States is therefore working closely with the Mexican government to support and targeted technical assistance in the sectors of electricity, as well as traditional and unconventional hydrocarbons.
At the hearing it was reported that the price of light sweet crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate came to fall to $26 per barrel in the first quarter, the lowest since 2003, but this week closed above the mark of $50 per barrel .
Adam Sieminski, head of the Administration of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the United States, projected that the price of WTI will face a “high level of uncertainty” in 2016, with a projected price of between $36 and $69 per barrel for the month of September.
Originally the EIA had projected that the price of WTI would be slightly below $43 per barrel in 2016 and $52 per barrel in 2017, but adjusted its projections following the movements and trends in the futures market.
Among the reasons for the recent increase in oil prices, the US agency listed improving economic data, problems in the supply chain and the decreasing level of oil production in the United States.