Black Gold Next Frontier for Mexico's Top Billionaires Adam Williams - Bloomberg News
go to original February 26, 2015

Carlos Slim, Germán Larrea Mota and Alberto Bailleres (Economica)

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's top three billionaires — Carlos Slim, Alberto Bailleres, and German Larrea — dominate the country's telecommunications, mining and retail industries. Next up on their priority list: oil.

Slim, Bailleres and Larrea, Mexico's three richest men according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, have created branches within their holding companies to compete in the oil and natural gas industries as the country's government-run energy monopolies end. Bailleres's Grupo Bal, which oversees mining companies Fresnillo Plc and Industrias Penoles, formed PetroBal to explore for crude in Mexico two weeks ago.

The participation of Mexico's most powerful industrialists in the energy industry comes as international oil companies are backing off investment plans amid the lowest crude prices since 2008. Major producers could look to the magnates' companies for extensive local experience and financing, said Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

"There is a lot of money to be made in the energy sector," Wood said in a phone interview from Washington. "It's perfectly natural that all of these companies and conglomerates, given their experience in Mexico, are looking for opportunities in oil."

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