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Mexico is among the developing countries that have progressively adopted policies toward a more liberalized and market-oriented economy. Throughout this process, which began in the 1980s, there have been various periods of aggressive privatization of previously government-owned companies. However, in spite of this wave of economic liberalization over the past 30-plus years, it had been very difficult to reach a political agreement to change the monopolistic conditions that prevailed in the energy sector. That changed in 2013 and 2014, when a major structural reform was accomplished in that sector in Mexico. Following that constitutional and legislative achievement, in July 2015 Mexico carried out a first round of oil block bids, beginning the implementation of the energy reform and signaling that the long-awaited opening of the country's oil industry to private and foreign companies had arrived (El Economista 2015a; Foros Milenio 2015). Although not all the oil fields included in that bidding process were awarded—only two of them were sold—the first round of auctions turned out to be very symbolic (El Economista 2015b). To be sure, this did not mean that private or foreign companies were absent from Mexico prior to 2015; the difference is that companies other than Pemex, the national oil company, can now engage in the business of exploration and exploitation, activities that Pemex had previously monopolized under Mexican law.

A recurring argument put forth by the Mexican government to galvanize support for the energy reform was that Pemex lacked the appropriate technology to exploit deepwater oil reserves (Presidencia de la …