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1. Introduction
On March of 2025, the National Energy Commission (“CNE”) was created, a new regulatory authority designed to oversee and streamline operations within Mexico’s energy sector. The CNE will be responsible for regulating the production of natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), petroleum derivatives, petrochemicals, and electricity. Its creation aims to reduce bureaucratic burdens and eliminate overlapping regulatory functions. The Commission’s core mandates include the granting of permits, supervision and regulation of production activities, inspection and sanctioning of irregularities, and the calculation of rates and compensatory fees.
Recently on May 21, 2025, the CNE announced that it will be headed by Juan Carlos Solís Ávila, a professional with over twenty years of experience in the design and implementation of public policies and projects related to both conventional and renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, eco-technologies, and climate change. Solís. Likewise, its Technical Committee will be composed of senior officials from the Secretariat of Energy, executive officers of the CNE, and three professionals with recognized expertise in the energy field. This Committee will be tasked with reviewing, advising, analyzing, evaluating, issuing rulings, and approving legal and administrative actions, thereby promoting transparency and objectivity in the regulatory process. Its appointed members include María Elena Huesca Pérez, Diego Marie Phillippe Chatellier Lorentzen, and Lissette Mendoza Barrón.
Both the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) and the CNE now operate under their respective internal regulations, which were published in 17 April and 8 May 2025 respectively. These regulatory frameworks provide detailed organizational structures, define the scope of authority, and establish the procedures for the exercise of their regulatory and policy functions.
The Reglamento Interior de la Secretaría de Energía (“Reglamento SENER”) and the Reglamento Interior de la Comisión Nacional de Energía (“Reglamento CNE”) implement the statutory package enacted in March 2025 that dissolved the Energy Regulatory Commission (“CRE”) and National Hydrocarbons Commission (“CNH”) and recast SENER as the single, ministry-level locus of energy policy and regulation. Reglamento SENER reorganises the Ministry to absorb the CNH’s upstream portfolio and selected “strategic” competencies in relation to the CRE’s downstream permits and electricity market regulation. Likesiwe, the Reglamento CNE creates the Comisión Nacional de Energía (“CNE”) as a deconcentrated arm of SENER to handle the balance of the former CRE mandate.
This article maps those institutional changes, describes the new internal architecture of SENER and the CNE, and—critically—identifies which powers have migrated where so that market participants can realign compliance and project-development strategies.
2. SENER 2025 – from policy-setter to single-window energy regulator
Where SENER was previously cast as a policy coordinator that relied on two autonomous regulators—the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE)—the new regulation recentralises those powers. The Reglamento SENER realigns SENER’s role from a policy overseer to a policy-maker and primary regulator for upstream hydrocarbons, strategic mid-/down-stream permits and, in defined areas, electricity tariffs and market rules. To absorb these new functions, SENER’s organizational structure has been overhauled, and some of the key structural changes are as follows:
2.1 Subsecretaría de Hidrocarburos
The Hydrocarbons Sub-Secretariat is rebuilt to absorb the technical and supervisory task that used to sit with the CNH. Five specialised units now deliver the full life-cycle of Exploration & Production (“E&P”) regulation:
- Unidad de Desarrollo de Modelos Contractuales y de Asignaciones, Proyectos Regulatorios y Argumentación Técnica;
- Unidad Técnica de Exploración;
- Unidad Técnica de Extracción de Hidrocarburos;
- Unidad de Seguimiento y Supervisión de Asignaciones, Contratos y Permisos;
- Unidad de Políticas de Transformación Industrial.
2.2 Subsecretaría de Electricidad
The Reglamento SENER reorganises the Subsecretaría de Electricidad into four Direcciones Generales which set the technical or planning parameters within which the CNE must operate: Confiabilidad y Seguridad del SEN; Generación y Transmisión; Distribución y Uso Final; and Análisis y Evaluación del Mercado Eléctrico Mayorista. The CNE then processes individual generation or supply permits, issues interconnection decisions, and publishes tariff methodologies within those SENER parameters and subject to SENER’s prior opinion.
2.3 Office of the Secretary & administrative support
The Reglamento SENER also makes some structural tweaks in SENER’s top-level offices. For example, the old Oficialía Mayor (Chief Administrative Office) is replaced by a Unidad de Administración y Finanzas. Notably, it is tasked in transitional articles with reallocating CNH/CRE staff and budget into the new units.
The Reglamento SENER also introduces a Unidad de Estrategia, Vinculación Interinstitucional y Seguimiento de Proyectos e Inversiones, which consolidates some coordination and investor-relations functions that were previously spread across separate directorates within SENER’s administrative structure. A new Dirección General de Transparencia y Protección de Datos Personales was also created, elevating the ministry’s disclosure and data-privacy work, ensuring that public registries formerly maintained by CRE and CNH remain accessible under a single portal.
2.4 Comité de Asignaciones, Contratos y Permisos
The Reglamento SENER establishes the Comité de Asignaciones, Contratos y Permisos (the “Committee”), which is an internal collegiate body that sits at the top of SENER and is composed of the Energy Secretary, three subsecretaries and the ministry’s chief legal officer. Nearly all proposed grants, modifications, or revocations or permits, contracts, assignments etc., across the hydrocarbons and electricity sectors must be submitted for consideration of the Committee.
The creation of the Committee is a direct response to concerns about concentrating too much authority in a single official – it introduces a degree of collective review and technical vetting within SENER for its decisions. Under the previous regulations, that vetting was done by CNH or CRE commissioners voting in public sessions. Now it happens behind closed doors at SENER, but with a multi-person body. This represents newly centralized authority moderated by an internal due-process mechanism.
3. Comisión Nacional de Energía (CNE): a technical branch under ministerial control
The CNE replaces the former CRE as day-to-day regulator for electricity and downstream hydrocarbons while operating as a deconcentrated agency of SENER. It therefore retains technical and budgetary independence for its own files, yet it no longer enjoys separate legal personality or full board-level autonomy. Most of the transferred powers—including permitting, tariff-methodology drafting and market surveillance—are discussed in Section 5. The focus here is how the CNE’s institutional design differs from the autonomous commission model that characterised both the CRE and the CNH.
3.1 Legal status and autonomy
Under the 2014 framework, the CRE and CNH were classified as Órganos Reguladores Coordinados en Materia Energética (ORCME): autonomous bodies with their own legal personality, budgets funded by regulatory fees and a statutory duty to foster competition and protect users. By contrast, Article 2 of the Reglamento CNE defines the new commission as an órgano administrativo desconcentrado de la Secretaría de Energía, endowed with “independencia técnica, operativa, de gestión y decisión,” but explicitly nested inside the SENER. Its resolutions will still be subject to judicial review and it will administer its own budget line, yet it is no longer a free-standing public entity. Notably, because the CNE is not autonomous in the way CRE was, its chief officer is titled Director General rather than chairman commissioner “Comisionado Presidente”.
3.2 Governing-body structure
Previously, the CRE and CNH were each governed by a multi-member board that was appointed for fixed terms and voted on matters in public session. The new CNE, however, does not have a commission of independent regulators. Instead, the CNE is headed by a single Director General (to be appointed by the President and ratified by the Senate), who is supported (and overseen) by a Technical Committee (Comité Técnico) as the collegial decision-making body. Crucially, the Secretary of Energy (the head of SENER) presides over the CNE’s Technical Committee. In practice, this means the Energy Ministry’s top official chairs the CNE’s key decision forum – a significant change from the prior model where the regulators chaired their own boards.
3.3 Organisational hierarchy
Under the new regime, SENER has been restructured and the CNE is organized into five lean Unidades Administrativas: Electricity, Hydrocarbons, Verification, Legal Affairs, Administration & Finance, plus a Secretaría Técnica (technical secretariat). The Verification Unit is noteworthy – it centralizes the inspection and enforcement functions across the energy sector, something that under the prior scheme was handled by CRE’s and CNH’s own enforcement arms.
4. Allocation of former CNH functions to SENER
Under the Reglamento SENER, essentially all of CNH’s former functions have been transferred to SENER and the new Subsecretariat of Hydrocarbons mirrors CNH’s functional structure. The Committee approves each high-impact decision, but the substantive work is carried out by the specialist units listed in Section 2.1 above and set forth in Articles 26-46 of Reglamento SENER. The transfer of responsibilities can be mapped as follows:
· Licensing of blocks, contracts and Pemex assignment: The Unidad de Desarrollo de Modelos Contractuales y de Asignaciones designs bid terms, conducts tenders or direct allocations; issues contract or assignment titles and proposes the granting of assignments for public-private joint development (mixed participation under the new legal regime). The Committee must pre-clear: (i) areas to be tendered, (ii) contract models, (iii) awards, migrations and farm-outs, and (iv) reservoir unitisation.
· Exploration plans and drilling approvals: The Unidad Técnica de Exploración now authorises surface studies, exploratory wells and multi-year exploration plans, and processes extensions or waivers. Its two directorates—Autorizaciones de Estudios y Pozos Exploratorios and Planes de Exploración—mirror CNH workflows but operate inside the SENER.
· Development plans, reserves and production management: The Unidad Técnica de Extracción de Hidrocarburos reviews field-development and extraction plans, certifies reserves and production balances, and opines on secondary-recovery and gas-utilisation schemes. The Committee endorses each approval, amendment or extension.
· Operational supervision and sanctions: The Unidad de Seguimiento y Supervisión de Asignaciones, Contratos y Permisos audits compliance with investment and work-obligations for both Pemex assignments and private contracts. It can recommend fines, suspensions or contract terminations, which the Committee must confirm before issuance—replacing CNH’s functions through its past enforcement board.
· Technical regulation and NOMs: A Directorate-General for Proyectos de Regulación, Normas Oficiales Mexicanas y Estándares inside the Contract-Models Unit now drafts and updates upstream technical rules—well design, measurement standards, development-plan formats—functions previously discharged by CNH.
5. Allocation of former CRE functions to CNE and SENER
Under the new framework, the CNE is essentially the successor to the CRE’s regulatory role – albeit within SENER’s organizational orbit. In general, most of CRE’s former functions have been assumed by the CNE, with a few notable exceptions where certain powers are now reserved to SENER.
5.1 CNE
The Reglamento CNE place electricity and most downstream-hydrocarbon regulation under specialised units and require the CNE to consult SENER on high-impact economic measures. The CNE’s key competencies are listed below.
5.1.1 Electricity-sector
· Generation and retail-supply permits – issues and amends permits for power plants and retail marketers; registers market participants in the Wholesale Electricity Market (“MEM”).
· Market rules and MEM oversight – prepares and enforces market rules and operational procedures. Day-to-day supervision of CENACE remains with the CNE, while binding reliability criteria and grid-expansion approvals rest with SENER (see section 6.2).
· Tariff methodologies – drafts and proposes formulas for transmission, distribution and basic-supply tariffs, which take effect only after formal approval by SENER.
· Clean-Energy Certificates (CELs) – maintains the national CEL registry, verifies compliance with renewable targets and imposes sanctions for shortfalls.
· Consumer subsidies – administers electricity-rate subsidy schemes and monitors their budgetary compliance on behalf of the Ministry of Finance.
5.1.2 Downstream hydrocarbons
· Permits for processing, transport, storage and distribution – covers LNG terminals, product pipelines, LPG trucking, natural-gas distribution networks, retail stations and petrochemical plants.
· Commercialisation and retail permits – approves the permits for the trading and final sales of natural gas, LPG and refined fuels (gasoline, diesel, jet, fuel oil).
· Price and tariff regulation – sets or caps prices in segments with limited competition (e.g., LPG cylinder prices, pipeline tariffs); may revise caps in coordination with SENER’s policy objectives.
· Verification and enforcement – conducts inspections, tests product quality and measurement accuracy, and can fine, suspend or close facilities for serious breaches.
· Public registry and transparency – publishes every permit, tariff decision and sanction to ensure market transparency similar to the former CRE registry.
5.2 SENER
Certain powers the CRE once held are now classified as “actividades estratégicas” and rest directly with the SENER. These carve-outs ensure direct government control over the most politically sensitive assets:
- Crude-oil logistics – permitting for transport, storage and commercialisation of crude oil sits with SENER’s Unidad de Políticas de Transformación Industrial.
- Biofuels – SENER grants blending, production and trading permits for ethanol and biodiesel, reflecting the programme’s linkage to agricultural and energy-security policy.
- Geothermal concessions – because geothermal involves sub-soil rights analogous to mining, concessions are now issued by SENER (after Committee review), not by the CNE.
- Import and export licences – SENER retains exclusive authority to approve cross-border trade in electricity, crude oil, refined products and natural gas.
- Strategic-price interventions – where federal policy mandates price controls beyond the CNE’s economic-regulation remit (e.g., emergency fuel caps), SENER issues the relevant decrees.
- Electricity-sector planning and grid expansion – the Sub-Secretaría de Electricidad approves the Programa de Desarrollo del Sistema Eléctrico Nacional and authorises CENACE’s transmission and distribution expansion plans.
- Reliability standards and emergency measures – SENER sets binding reliability/security criteria and may requisition assets during supply emergencies.
- Final sign-off on regulated-tariff methodologies – every tariff formula drafted by the CNE requires ministerial approval before publication.
6. Issuance of Organizational Manuals and Committee Rules under the New Internal Regulations
According to the transitional articles of the new Internal Regulations of SENER and the CNE, the General Organization Manuals and the Rules of the Technical Committees of these bodies must be issued within 90 business days following their entry into force. These documents will define the internal governance and operational standards of the CNE and SENER. It is essential to monitor the publication of these documents to ensure proper legal compliance.
7. Conclusion
With Reglamento SENER and Reglamento CNE now in force, Mexico’s energy‐governance model pivots from semi-autonomous commissions to a consolidated ministerial framework. SENER becomes the country’s upstream regulator, retains control of strategic fuel and import-export permits, and presides over an internal Committee that signs off every high-impact decision. The CNE inherits the CRE’s day-to-day functions—generation permits, MEM surveillance, downstream-fuel licensing and tariff methodologies—yet operates under SENERs chairmanship. Companies active in exploration, power generation, fuel logistics or retail should review filing routes, approval timelines and enforcement protocols. Early engagement with the relevant unit will be essential to keep projects on schedule under the new legal framework.
