Since the end of 2024, the Mexican energy sector has undergone a profound institutional reorganization, but one of its less-discussed effects has been the loss of public information. Today, we do not know precisely what the updated level of the country’s oil and natural gas reserves is; the latest publication corresponds to January 1, 2024, while the Hydrocarbons Information System records its most recent update in January 2025.
This absence is directly related to the disappearance of the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), the regulatory body that was responsible for integrating and publishing the national reserves, as well as information on production by field, wells under development, exploration activities, and unutilized natural gas. The transfer of its functions has not been accompanied by an equivalent publication mechanism, so the institutional reorganization ended up weakening one of the sector’s main sources of technical information.
Something similar occurred in the electricity system. Data such as operational alerts, the reserve margin, and other indicators regarding system conditions disappeared from the public area of the Market Information System. This information made it possible to observe more clearly whether a power interruption was related to a lack of capacity, grid saturation, the unavailability of power plants, or some regional contingency. CENACE, operator of the market and of the National Electric System, justified the restriction on the grounds of national security, but the indicators were not published again.
Another fundamental instrument is the National Energy Balance, whose latest publication appeared on February 10, 2024. This document integrates the production, import, and export of primary energy, its transformation in refineries, processing plants, power plants, and other facilities, and finally energy consumption in the industrial, transportation, agricultural, commercial, and residential sectors.
Added to these documents were the production and consumption outlooks for oil, petroleum products, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, electricity, and renewable energies. For years they were published annually, stopped being updated regularly after 2018, and had an additional edition on April 3, 2024, with projections for the 2023–2037 period. Since then, no new version has been presented, despite the regulatory, institutional, and investment changes that have occurred in the sector.
Binding planning has acquired a central role in the new energy model, under the premise that the State must define the needs for infrastructure, production, and system expansion. However, planning that cannot be contrasted with public information runs the risk of becoming an administrative decision that is difficult to evaluate. SENER still has the task of rebuilding a data system that allows simple queries, coverage of the entire industry, and certainty regarding its periodicity. Before linking investments to government planning, it will be necessary to link that planning once again to sufficient, current, and verifiable data.
This article was originally published by La Prensa OEM.
Date: July 24, 2026
Link: https://oem.com.mx/la-prensa/analisis/opinion-por-paul-alejandro-nos-faltan-datos-del-sector-energetico-31262033 [Online]