O&G provides companies and governmental entities with a full menu of services. We assist clients with lobbying, public relations and strategy development, helping them to protect and build their core interests.

Our broad experience, trusted relationships and unparalleled expertise help us to develop the best, most effective solutions for your needs.

Similarly, clients have come to us because they see a threat to their business from potential new legislation or regulatory schemes and need advice on how to defend themselves or influence these initiatives so they are less onerous.

As the occasion demands, sometimes it is just helpful for us to monitor these developments for them so that they can have advance warning of upcoming issues that can materially affect their business.

Our services include:

• International Relations

Through our highly qualified team of image consultants, we provide your organization with state-of-the-art services for all your professional image needs.

We are committed to providing high quality, ethical representation and reaching our clients desired results in a timely manner.

Corporate Image Management is an effective way to sustain and strengthen your corporate branding, project an image that is appropriate, consistent and reflects the company’s values. 

At O&G the art of effective lobbying starts with the client.

Fully understanding their situation, their needs and their constraints is crucial to solving a problem or pursuing an opportunity. Issues are rarely as simple as they may seem and there rarely is one single silver bullet approach to a situation.

Once we and the client have fully explored and defined the issues involved, we can begin to identify the best possible approaches.

This “reality check” gives us an insight into what other competing influences may be at work and allows us the opportunity to fine tune our strategy, thus improving our chances for its ultimate success on a timely basis.

Society’s expectations for businesses have changed, and there is increasing focus on the extent to which companies are aligning their economic objectives with the social and ecological needs of the communities in which they operate.  Most progressive companies today seek ways to minimize the costs of externalities and to use their business expertise to address the challenges faced by society.

Together with our clients, we help develop the strategies, structures, and techniques that will improve their ability to achieve social change—and then develop the best practices that will help them make those ideas a reality. As technology evolves, social networks expand, and more data is available to support decision-making. We monitor that data and contribute new tools to achieve impact.

We put social responsibility on top of the management agenda and an integral part of a company’s strategy.

We go beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to ensure true commitment and maximum impact.

We create competitive advantage by aligning your business model with the social and ecological context—in effect, achieving a social advantage.

We will support your company to create impact on their surrounding communities through collaboration and socially responsible business practices.  And in doing so, we take a holistic view, incorporating economic, social, and ecological issues.

ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, SAFETY AND QUALITY

The importance of effective quality, health, environment and safety procurement in the oil and gas industry is highlighted by extensively reported examples of major process safety incidents including the 2015 Abkatun A Permanent Oil Rig explosion and fire of Petroleos Mexicanos in Campeche, 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the Buncefield oil storage depot explosion (2005), the 1988 Piper Alpha oil platform explosion (both occurring in the UK) and the Gas Plant explosion at Longford, Australia in 1998.

Every single day, the power, oil & gas industry must grapple with a variety of quality, health, safety and environmental concerns throughout its range of operations. In the fact of increasing regulatory oversight, expensive accident costs as well as increased public scrutiny, companies need to implement effective safety management systems to protect their workers, the community, the environment and their facilities.

EHS SYSTEMS

O&G has advised its clients in the power, oil and gas industries to establish tailored systems, programs and processes to manage and monitor activities that affect their safety performance.

Our safety management services can develop management systems that support safety sustainability and business performance throughout the full life cycle of your facilities.

We can design and make the implementation of Quality Management Systems; Industrial Safety, Occupational Health and Environment Protection Systems (EHS) under the European Model (SEVESO) the American (EPA, OSHA) and the ISO 45000.

Likewise our experts are able to assess the Effectiveness of the Quality Management System and EHS through methodology CLYMETRIX©, similar to that used by the University of Aberdeen, NASA, the Minnesota University Duluth among others to measure its Safety Culture and avoid accidents like those suffered by the Horizon BP and Petrobras, P-36.

As we can see, the first strategy is focused on the input of the activity and the second one is directed to the inspection of the quality of the product, using the scientific tools designed for such purpose.

 

Domestic market structure

The owner of all hydrocarbon resources in Mexico is the Mexican nation. Private parties cannot own the hydrocarbons in the subsoil or at wellhead. Only the Mexican state is entitled to explore and exploit hydrocarbon resources, and it does it through the national oil company, Pemex. Upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum activities are controlled by the Mexican state.

However, under the energy reform, production sharing contracts, profit sharing contracts and licences are allowed.

Downstream gas activities are partially liberalized. The Energy Regulatory Commission (Comisión Reguladora de Energía) (ERC) (Mexico's electricity and gas regulator) issues transportation, distribution and storage permits. The distribution market is divided into geographic zones, where distribution permit holders have exclusivity rights for 12 years. Tariffs for these services are regulated by the ERC under the "Rate of Return" rules.

Additionally, subject to the specific rules set forth in the secondary legislation, private parties may engage in oil and its derivatives and petrochemical products transport, storage and distribution activities, subject to a permit to be issued by the ERC.

The overall sector policy is contained in the National Development Plan, prepared anually by the goverment and in the National Energy Strategy.

The regulatory regime that applies to oil and gas exploration and production is:

Now Pemex may contract with national and international companies who are providers of goods and services in the oil industry under contractual models that are more attractive and balanced, both for Pemex as well as for the companies.

The Regulatory Law of Constitutional Article 27 (also known as the Petroleum Law) specifies the character of contracts that are permitted as well as that of those that are prohibited. It specifies that petroleum resources and revenue generated by their sale always belong to the Nation.

The Procurement Guidelines (often cited as DAC, for their Spanish initials) specify the planning process and the procurement procedures that are authorized in Art. 51 of the Pemex Law.​​

 

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

In Mexico all the oil and gas industry, by Law, must ensure that the development of a project or associated activities shall be done according to the best international practices, seeking the adoption of measures to ensure the optimal and safe handling of dangerous substances , ensuring environmental protection and the necessary industrial safety conditions.

Mexico has a specialized regulatory agency for environmental aspects (SEMARNAT). The oil and gas industry must meet all the regulatory framework.

Specific regulations exist for oil and gas exploration and production and downstream natural gas transportation. Health and safety in oil and gas is regulated specifically by the recently created Agency for Energy, Safety and Environmental Protection (ASEA), including specific issues related with industrial safety in deepwater offshore exploration and production facilities.

The ASEA issues technical regulations (standards and thresholds) in order to managing safety and environmental risks caused by the oil and gas activities and downstream natural gas transportation activities (through pipelines).

Additionally, all energy projects must comply with the insurance guidelines issued by the ERC.

Summarizing. we have standards applicable to the activities of the Power and oil and gas Companies operating in Mexico issued by:

The basic Standards Framework to operate in Mexico are constituted by the following different categories of dispositions:

• Official Mexican Standards (NOM) are mandatory technical regulations. They regulate products, processes and services when these may constitute a risk to people, animals, plants and the environment in general, among others.
• Mexican Standards (NMX) are developed by a national standardization body, or the SE. They establish the minimum quality requirements of products and services in order to protect and guide consumers. Their application is voluntary, except in those cases where individuals express that their products, processes or services conform to them, or when a NOM requires the observance of a NMX for specific purposes.
• Reference Standards (NRF) are developed by public administration entities for application to goods or services they acquire, lease or hire, when Mexican or international standards do not cover the relevant requirements or their specifications or obsolete or inapplicable.
• Standards developed by federal public administration entities (e.g. PEMEX , CFE)

Likewise the oil and gas operations are also regulated by the international available standards issued by acknowledged specialized organizations, such as: ISO,ASME, ASTM, API,ANSI, OSHA, EPA, IEC, ETC.

Our qualified staff of engineering, professionals are well versed in the standard management practices, design standards, and regulatory frameworks applicable to the oil and gas industry in Mexico.

Now more than ever, oil and operators must contend with a variety of regulatory and environmental compliance demands, and O&G is particularly well qualified to assist operators in meeting these requirements.