New Five-Year Plan for Mexico E&P Potential Sign of Future Bid Round Reactivation The release of a new five-year plan by Mexican Energy Ministry Sener could be a sign that future exploration and production (E&P) bid rounds for private sector operators are in the offing. That’s according to analysis done by Mexican consultancy Talanza. E&P bid rounds have been frozen since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power in late 2018, and this would be a sharp departure from current government policy. On October 28, Sener published the second five-year plan for E&P bidding processes as required by the Hydrocarbons Law. The first was published in 2015 with four subsequent annual updates from 2016 to 2019, but this is the first new plan published during the administration of López Obrador.