Mexican Nationalist Oil Policy

It's as bad as you might imagine

Peter Zeihan here on how badly Mexico has handled their oil fields and refinery plans.

Basically PEMEX hit the oil lottery with Cantarell, they never got good at exploration, and the refineries they’ve built are suitable for Persian Gulf oil, not what’s available in the region.

There is much to be said for buying locally … but not if you’re buying a problem. No ideologue of any stripe will get things like this right - it requires pragmatism that they are unable to muster.

This could be good for the U.S., if Mexico again requires our refined products, but that’s contingent on them being ready to step into China’s role when their housing market meltdown really takes off. But since we’ve got nationalist loonies taking office in a week, we’ll fumble this opening badly.