Experts appointed by President Claudia Sheinbaum also recommended using only saltwater for projects elsewhere and further reviewing two northern basins for unconventional gas extraction.
A panel appointed by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum recommended banning hydraulic fracturing in the Tampico-Misantla basin while limiting any projects elsewhere in Mexico to saltwater use. The proposals, presented at Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, were framed as measures to protect biodiversity and local populations. The experts said unconventional gas extraction should be barred in Tampico-Misantla, which spans Veracruz on the Gulf coast, citing the basin’s biodiversity and high population density. They also called for continued evaluation of the Sabinas-Burro-Picachos and Burgos basins in northern Mexico, with Sabinas-Burro-Picachos identified as having the greatest unconventional gas potential among the three areas assessed. Jose Antonio Hernandez, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) engineering faculty, said a single fracking well uses between 50,000 and 70,000 cubic meters of water. The panel identified saltwater at depths of 1,000 to 1,500 meters as the preferred source for operations because its salinity and chemical properties make it unsuitable for human consumption. Reuters had reported a day earlier that Tampico-Misantla was likely to be excluded despite its oil and gas potential because of the risk of community opposition previously seen around Pemex projects in densely populated parts of Veracruz. Sheinbaum created the panel in April to assess whether unconventional gas exploitation is viable in Mexico.