Eyes are on Mexico’s untapped potential

[TexasTowelie]

HIDALGO, Mexico — On barren ranch land just south of the Texas border, where road signs are pockmarked with bullet holes, a small group of foreign oil and gas companies is looking for the future.

Conditions are difficult — some companies have resorted to paying protection money to drug cartels that control the area — and results from test wells have been limited. But as Mexico prepares to open its oil and gas fields to exploration by foreign companies for the first time in seven decades, expectations are high, especially for Texas companies that likely will play a leading role in the development.

“I think all the stars are in alignment this time,” Ray L. Hunt, chief executive officer of Dallas-based Hunt Consolidated, said in an interview. “Mexico has a significant natural resource. And I think 10, 15, 20 years from now you’re going to see huge changes along the border.”

The obstacles are numerous, from oil at the deepest depths of the Gulf of Mexico to gas shale formations in cartel-controlled territory along the 1,200-mile border with Texas.

There is an extensive report including several videos and graphics at http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/border_energy/ .