Mexico moves to launch world's largest oil hedge program

05 Sep, 2019

A Wall Street source and a Mexican congressional source familiar with the program, both of whom declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the deal, told Reuters on Wednesday that banks have been submitting offers for the hedge and that Mexico had requested these quotes.

The country buys as much as $1 billion worth of financial positions in a series of highly anticipated oil trades in order to protect its revenues from oil sales for the coming year against price volatility.

Buying in specific financial oil options contracts for 2020, in US West Texas Intermediate crude and Brent crude has increased in recent days, two market sources familiar with the Mexico hedge said.

The Mexican finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Negotiations are notoriously secretive and limited to few participants as both sides attempt to secure the best terms in a highly competitive deal for banks.

It is unclear when Wall Street banks started to submit bids to Mexico.

Reuters reported last week that Mexico was close to executing the hedging program after several sources familiar with the program said that talks between Wall Street banks and the finance ministry had intensified recently.

"They are in the final stages of the hedge," the Mexican source said of the negotiations, ahead of the country presenting its 2020 budget on Sunday.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

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