The Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) has received clearance from the Federal Commission for Regulatory Improvement to publish the general administrative provisions (GAPs) that set out the Guidelines for the Statistic Registry of Commercial Transactions Arising from Regulated Activities Performed with Natural Gas and Oil. The CRE had previously issued similar administrative guidelines to report transactions with liquid petroleum gas and petroleum products.

Permit holders

The GAPs establish the Natural Gas and Oil Commercial Transactions Registry System (SIRETRAC) and provide new reporting obligations for permit holders that perform any of the following regulated activities with natural gas or oil:

  • storage;
  • transport;
  • distribution;
  • integrated systems administration;
  • compression;
  • decompression;
  • liquefaction;
  • regasification;
  • retail;
  • trading;
  • first-hand sales; and
  • exploration and extraction contractors with trading permits.

Activities performed with condensates, natural gas liquids and methane hydrates will not be reported.

SIRETRAC

The SIRETRAC will be an electronic system operated by the CRE in which permit holders and contractors will report the sales and purchases of natural gas and oil performed all along the value chain. The reports:

  • will be submitted monthly or biannually (in the case of contractors);
  • must consider the invoice date and not the date in which the transaction took place;
  • must contain supporting invoices for all transactions;
  • must still be submitted blank when no transactions have been performed during the relevant period; and
  • will cover a variety of content depending on the type of permit holder.

The SIRETRAC will be activated at each permit holder's CRE electronic parts office account:

  • automatically after the publication of the GAPs for those permit holders that have already started operations; or
  • after notifying the CRE of the commencement of operations.

The obligation to submit reports will be effective 15 business days after the publication of the GAPs in the Official Gazette.

Penalties

The CRE has the authority to verify compliance with the GAPs and may impose the penalties provided in the Hydrocarbons Law on those permit holders and contractors that do not report accordingly. The Hydrocarbons Law and the GAPs do not provide a specific penalty, but failure to report in SIRETRAC may be considered either:

  • a breach of the terms and conditions provided in the respective permits (incurring fines between Ps1,267,350 and Ps12,673,500); or
  • a violation of:
    • the other provisions in Title 3 of the Hydrocarbons Law; or
    • the administrative provisions issued by the CRE (incurring fines between Ps1,267,350 and Ps38,020,500).

The application of penalties will depend on the:

  • damages (caused or that could be caused);
  • intentionality;
  • severity; and
  • recurrence.

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