25 June 2020 /

This guidelines contain the basis to regulate the nomenclature, identification and classification of wells, as well as of the oilfields and deposits where this are located, the operators obligations and the requirements criteria to grant the authorizations for drilling wells, as well as the procedure and information required for their modification.

The well drilling guidelines, published on October 14th, 2016, by the National Hydrocarbons Commission in the Federal Official Gazette are applicable to all the Hydrocarbons industry and are part of the new regulation that has been published in accordance with the recent structural amendments to the energy legal framework of the country.

This guidelines contain the basis to regulate the nomenclature, identification and classification of wells, as well as of the oilfields and deposits where this are located, the operators obligations and the requirements criteria to grant the authorizations for drilling wells, as well as the procedure and information required for their modification.

Their importance lies in the fact that this is the regulation that will govern any participant in the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons in Mexico, taking into account the great change that allows for privates unrelated to the state to participate in the aforementioned activity without Pemex intervention, something that for more than 70 years was not permitted in Mexico.

A key issue in this guidelines that is worth mentioning is that not having a recent national precedent, they allow for the private participant, within the law, to adopt the best international practices in the development of activities subject to this guidelines, in hopes that they are therefore improved and amended with the assistance of the hydrocarbons industry feedback with the aim of creating the best regulation possible, that is not restrictive for the private participants and at the same time that it ensures the protection of national interests such as environmental protection and industrial security.