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Mexico Hit By 6.4-Magnitude Earthquake

Mexico Hit By 6.4-Magnitude Earthquake

By Cecilia Sanchez, Los Angeles Times

MEXICO CITY — A shallow earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 rattled Mexico City and other parts of the country Thursday, sending people running into the streets.

The temblor struck near the southwestern Mexican city of Tecpan de Galeana, about 60 miles northwest of Acapulco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or signs of major damage, Mexican government officials said. Hospitals, airports and public transportation were operating normally.

But a number of people in the capital said they were frightened by the force of the quake.

“What a big scare,” said Rosaura Gomez, 56, who ran out of her home in the Polanco area of Mexico City. “One of my neighbors began crying. … What is going on?

Carmen Lira, a 37-year-old secretary, said everyone in her office also fled the building.

“It was very scary. Some of my colleagues suffered panic attacks because the buildings moved,” Lira said. “It felt very strong. We hope there wasn’t any damage.”

Felipe Sandoval Figueroa, a 44-year-old engineer, said he immediately thought about his wife and children when he felt the quake.

“Fortunately, they’re fine, but when you’re feeling such a powerful earthquake, you think of the worst,” he said. “Thank God, everything’s fine.”

martinluff via Flickr

Mexico Unveils Proposed Rules For Opening Of Energy Sector

Mexico Unveils Proposed Rules For Opening Of Energy Sector

By Alfredo Corchado, The Dallas Morning News

The administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto unveiled proposed rules Wednesday for a historic opening of the country’s energy sector, ending seven decades of state monopoly and paving the way for billions of dollars in investment by foreign companies.

The so-called secondary rules, needed to set regulations for the implementation of the reform passed last December, call for flexible contract terms for private companies and would give Mexican suppliers preference if they can match terms offered by foreign companies. But few details of the proposed rules were released.

For U.S. investors, the more details that can be provided, the better, said Tony Garza, former U.S. ambassador and now counsel at the Mexico City office of White & Case.

“In the broadest sense, investors, whether they’d be Texan or other, are looking for clarity, certainty and some comfort with respect to the enforceability of contracts,” he said. “Specifically, they’ll want to see the language that will be used attendant to sharing of profits and risk in both the production sharing and licensing arrangements.”

Said one Texas energy executive: “The devil is in the details. Time to get serious.”

The rules must be approved by Congress, which isn’t expected to vote until a special session ends in late June.

Oil and gas companies from around the world have been watching the developments in Mexico. In North Texas, most of the speculation is around oil giant Exxon Mobil and Hunt Oil, the Dallas-based private drilling company with a long resume of international projects.

“We expect that some of the biggest players, if not the biggest, will come from Texas,” Mexican Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora said in a recent interview in Washington. “Texans have the knowledge, the resources and proximity, which are huge advantages.”

With 10.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, Mexico ranks behind only Venezuela and Brazil in Latin America. State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, ranks as the 10th largest oil company in the world.

The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which founded Pemex, had expected to secure early backing for the energy rules from the opposition conservative National Action Party, or PAN. But in recent weeks, PAN has made passage of electoral reforms a condition for its support on energy.

Photo: OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development via Flickr

Wide Area Of Mexico Hit By Earthquake; Preliminary Magnitude Put At 7.2

Wide Area Of Mexico Hit By Earthquake; Preliminary Magnitude Put At 7.2

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

MEXICO CITY — A powerful earthquake shook a wide area of Mexico on Friday, terrifying residents and sending many fleeing into the streets.

There were no initial reports of injuries and only minor damage in the capital, though information from elsewhere in central Mexico was still coming in.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake at 9:30 a.m. local time had a preliminary magnitude of 7.2, which would make it one of the stronger temblors registered in Mexico City in several years.

The quake was 14 miles deep and felt in nine of Mexico’s 31 states, according to the USGS, with the epicenter located in the coastal state of Guerrero about 200 miles southwest of the capital.

Guerrero, between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo, is in seismically active region and is often slow to give accounts of damage because of the remoteness of some communities.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancerra said several walls had fallen down in the Zona Rosa section of the capital but that no injuries had been reported.

“The important part is that we have no reports of injured people,” he told journalists. “We did see that many buildings were evacuated of their people, and we are continuing to survey the capital.”

Ricardo de la Cruz, civil protection chief for the Interior Ministry, said: “We have only gotten reports of minor damage.”

Good Friday is an important holiday in largely Roman Catholic Mexico; most businesses were closed and people were home or attending religious services. Some fled from their houses barefoot and carrying pillows.

The quake knocked out electricity, traffic lights and cellular telephone service in some parts of the capital.

Much of Mexico City was destroyed and more than 10,000 people were killed in a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in 1985, but officials say they have put more safeguards into place since then.

Mancerra, who was in the middle of a Good Friday news conference when the quake struck, said “protocols” were being immediately launched in the sprawling capital, including dispatching helicopters to survey the most vulnerable neighborhoods.

Photo: Allen Ormond via Flickr.com