Canadian companies eye Pemex offshore contracts

Companies from eastern Canada's Nova Scotia province are interested in helping Mexico's state oil company Pemex to explore potential offshore reserves, the business development manager for Nova Scotia's department of energy, Frank Sommerville, told BNamericas. "In Nova Scotia, and eastern Canada in general, the oil industry is offshore related, so we have developed companies that have some expertise, especially in serving the offshore industry," Sommerville said on the sidelines of Pemex's oil-technology conference Exitep last week in Verzcruz. Until now, companies from Canada's western oil-rich province of Alberta have dominated Canada's business dealings with Pemex, but eastern Canadian companies are looking to get in on the action too, Sommerville said. "We're here to meet people from Pemex, local industry associations and companies to evaluate the types of goods and services available in Nova Scotia that might have a market here and how best to approach getting into the market," he added. The Canadian delegation is evaluating and meeting with Mexican companies and officials to determine what types of contracts would be possible. "It would probably be by forming a relationship with a local company. Most of the companies that we are representing here [at the conference] are small, specialized service companies, so probably the easiest way is a subcontractor relationship. There may be some specialized businesses that Pemex will tell us they are interested in," Sommerville said.