On November 5, 2026, the National Energy Commission (“CNE” per its acronym in Spanish) published in the Federal Official Gazette the resolution issuing the General Administrative Provisions Regulating the Marketing of Natural Gas, Petroleum Products, Liquefied Petroleum Gas and Petrochemicals (the “Regulations”).
The Regulations establish a new framework governing the activities that may be carried out under marketing permits issued pursuant to the Hydrocarbons Sector Law (“LSH” per its acronym in Spanish) and its regulations (“RLSH” per its acronym in Spanish).
Among other matters, the Regulations introduce new requirements for obtaining, amending, assigning and updating marketing permits, including in connection with changes of control. The Regulations also establish detailed requirements to demonstrate the lawful origin and traceability of products, set minimum terms for marketing agreements and require their registration with the CNE. In addition, marketing permit holders will be subject to extensive and ongoing reporting obligations.
In practical terms, the Regulations increase the documentary and reporting obligations of marketers. Marketing permit holders must be able to demonstrate, at all times, the lawful origin and traceability of the products they acquire and sell, maintain agreements that meet the new minimum requirements, register those agreements with the CNE and submit periodic reports. Certain obligations established in the Regulations also affect other permit holders (such as transportation or storage permit holders) that engage in commercial transactions with marketers.
The following summarizes the most relevant aspects of the Regulations and their practical implications.
The Regulations apply to the marketing of natural gas, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas ("LPG") and petrochemicals in Mexico. For these purposes, marketing includes the acquisition, offering and sale of such products and may also involve the management or procurement of transportation, storage, distribution and value-added services.
The Regulations apply to:
The CNE may monitor and verify compliance through inspection visits, requests for information and summons to appear. Non-compliance may result in sanctions under the LSH and, where applicable, revocation of the relevant permit.
Marketing permit holders must be able to demonstrate the lawful origin and availability of the products they offer and sell. The documentation required depends on how the products were obtained:
In all cases, electronic tax invoices (Comprobantes Fiscales Digitales por Internet, or "CFDIs" per its acronym in Spanish) must include specific information regarding the identification of the parties, tax information, product descriptions, line items, applicable taxes and total amounts. Where applicable, the corresponding bill of lading supplement (complemento Carta Porte) must also be included.
Product descriptions must be sufficiently detailed to identify the relevant products. In addition, the information contained in the CFDIs must be consistent with the corresponding records of product inflows, outflows, inventories and losses, particularly regarding product type, volume and units of measurement.
Special rule for natural gas transported by pipeline. Traceability may be demonstrated through volume or energy balances issued by the relevant transportation or storage permit holders. In these cases, batch identification is not required.
The Regulations establish specific requirements to demonstrate that a marketing permit holder is actually carrying out marketing activities.
For these purposes, an "offer" means making products available to other permit holders, users or end users through commercial instruments specifying, at a minimum, the product, volume, sale and delivery terms, and price. A mere expression of intent to sell does not qualify as an offer.
Upon request by the CNE, permit holders must provide evidence of their actual commercial activity, including, as applicable:
If a permit holder fails to demonstrate effective offering activity for a continuous period of 180 calendar days, it will be deemed not to be carrying out actual marketing activities.
Furthermore, marketing permits issued after the Regulations become effective must include an expiration condition if the permit holder fails to demonstrate that an offer has been formalized within 180 calendar days.
The Regulations introduce additional grounds for denying marketing permit applications, beyond those already established under the RLSH. These grounds also apply to applications for permit amendments and assignments.
In addition, once a permit is granted, the applicant must submit the executed agreements arising from the letters of intent included in its application within the following 15 business days.
Marketing permits will be granted for a term of up to two years. Upon expiration, permit holders wishing to continue their activities must obtain a new permit. Permits will not be automatically extended or renewed.
The LSH already required prior CNE authorization for the assignment of marketing permits. It also established that: (i) the CNE's failure to issue a resolution within 90 calendar days would be deemed a denial; and (ii) any assignment made without the required authorization would be null and void.
Similarly, the LSH required permit holders to update their permits in connection with changes in corporate or management control. The RLSH provided that these matters would be processed under the applicable permit evaluation procedure.
The Regulations expand and clarify these requirements as follows:
For this purpose, permit holders must submit:
A permit holder providing services to other marketing permit holders must include the management or contracting of transportation, storage or distribution services in its activities. In addition, it must hold at least one of the permits authorizing such activities.
The Regulations also prohibit permit holders from purchasing products from marketing permit holders that do not include these services, as well as from selling products to marketing permit holders that do not incorporate any value-added services.
Marketing agreements must allow the origin, movements, volume, quality, delivery points and destination of the products to be verified. The new minimum requirements include:
Agreements entered into pursuant to letters of intent must cover, at a minimum, the term of the relevant permit.
Permit holders must register their agreements with suppliers and customers through the Contracts Form available on the CNE's Electronic Filing Office (Oficialía de Partes Electrónica), on a semiannual basis, within ten business days following the end of each six-month period. Where an agreement is entered into between marketing permit holders, the counterparty must validate the registration. This information must be retained throughout the term of the permit and for an additional ten years.
In addition to any information requested by the Ministry of Energy, the CNE and other authorities, marketing permit holders must submit, at a minimum, the following reports:
Each reported transaction must include the corresponding ContratoId (the unique identifier automatically assigned by the Contracts Form to each agreement upon completion of its registration).
Expiration period. The 180-calendar-day period under the Regulations differs from the 365-consecutive-day period applicable, in the absence of an express term in the permit, pursuant to Article 88 of the LSH. This discrepancy could be subject to challenge.
Frequency of supplier and customer registry submissions. The Regulations require the supplier and customer registry to be submitted semiannually, whereas the RLSH provides for quarterly submissions.
Change of control without a threshold. Article 29 of the Regulations does not establish a minimum ownership percentage: the permit must be updated whenever a change in the permit holder’s capital structure results in a change of corporate or management control. The Regulations do not define “control”; however, the definition of Economic Interest Group (Article 3, section V) refers to direct or indirect control and to agreements of any kind to make decisions in the same direction.
New agreements. Until the CNE publishes the model agreement, any agreements entered into must comply with the minimum requirements set forth in the Regulations.
The Regulations entered into force on the day following their publication. Previously issued permits remain valid but are subject to the new obligations. Pending applications will be resolved in accordance with the provisions in force when they were filed. The relevant deadlines are as follows:
Obligations regarding trademarks will become enforceable once the CNE issues the corresponding regulation.
Should you have any questions regarding the Regulations or their implications, please do not hesitate to contact our team.
Legal Notice: This Client Alert is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a formal opinion on any specific matter. The information contained herein reflects a general analysis prepared by our attorneys based on information available at the time of publication. Any reproduction, citation, or reference to this content must be expressly attributed to Mijares and should not be construed as a public statement or comment made by the firm to the media.
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