Yesterday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto promulgated 21 new and amended laws which regulate last December´s historic constitutional energy reform. Among others, the new laws include a Hydrocarbons Law, which governs the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas sectors, a Hydrocarbons Revenues Law, which governs the manner in which the State may generate income in such sectors, and the Law of Pemex, which governs the conversion of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico´s national oil company, into a “productive state enterprise”.

During the signing ceremony, the President announced the following governmental actions to accelerate the full implementation of the energy reform:

1. by Wednesday, August 13, 2014:

a. the Secretaría de Energía (SENER), Mexico´s energy ministry, will publish lists of the exploration and production (E&P) areas it will assign to Pemex under “round zero”, and of the E&P areas it will auction off to state-owned companies (including Pemex) and private investors as part of the first round of bidding for E&P contracts; and...