National Energy Commission imposes two-year permits on fuel marketers

The National Energy Commission issued the General Administrative Provisions regulating the marketing of natural gas, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, and petrochemicals, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on November 5, 2026, through Agreement CT/20.SO/40-2026. The instrument establishes permits for up to two years, mandates the registration of all contracts in a single electronic form, and provides for revocation due to failure to prove the materiality of the offer.

The provisions were published in the section of the Ministry of Energy and replace the dispersed treatment that the Hydrocarbons Sector Law and its Regulations—the latter published on October 3, 2025—gave to marketing activities. The issuing body is a decentralized administrative body, sectorized under the Ministry of Energy, which assumed the powers of the defunct Energy Regulatory Commission following the decree published on March 18, 2025. The Commission’s Technical Committee approved the agreement in its Twentieth Ordinary Session on October 27, 2026, and the document was signed that day in Mexico City by the Director General, Juan Carlos Solís Ávila.

The regulation is mandatory throughout the national territory and applies to individuals, legal entities, parastatal entities, and State public enterprises that:

• have an interest in marketing natural gas, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, or petrochemicals;
• hold a current marketing permit;
• hold another permit under Article 76 of the Hydrocarbons Sector Law and maintain or intend to have commercial relations with marketing permit holders;
• are holders of an assignment or exploration and extraction contract, or permits for natural gas processing, petroleum formulation or refining, and market products from their own processes.

Permits of up to two years and registration of contracts

The Commission may grant marketing permits with a validity of up to two years, following an evaluation of each project in accordance with Article 81 of the Hydrocarbons Sector Law and the technical, economic, and regulatory criteria of Article 93 of its Regulations. To continue operating after expiration, the permit holder must obtain a new permit: the application is not considered an automatic extension. Permits are granted independently for natural gas, petroleum products, and petrochemicals, and in the case of liquefied petroleum gas, separately from other petroleum products.

The registration of contracts is mandatory. Permittees must register contracts with providers and clients—whether they are permittees or end users—in the Contract Form via the Electronic Filing Office, and the system assigns a unique ContractId that links each transaction to the supporting contract. Registration is carried out semi-annually, from January to June and from July to December, no later than ten business days following the conclusion of each period.

When the contract is entered into between two marketing permittees, one party registers and the other validates within a maximum period of ten business days; if rejected, the party responsible for registration has another ten business days to correct it. Modifications must be updated within five business days, and documentation must be preserved during the validity of the permit and for ten years thereafter.

Materiality of the offer and grounds for revocation

Article 6 requires proving the materiality of the offer with verifiable elements: active promotion and contracting channels, commercial conditions and price or its formula, operational, technical, financial, and legal availability, assigned personnel and platforms, contracting information, accounting records, and any other element that demonstrates lawful economic activity. The Commission considers that there is no effective offer activity when the permittee fails to prove these acts during a continuous period of one hundred and eighty calendar days.

Article 38 lists the grounds for revocation, including:

• failure to comply with the purpose, obligations, or conditions of the permit;
• engaging in unduly discriminatory practices or failing to respect price and tariff regulations;
• assigning or encumbering the permit without authorization;
• failure to comply with Official Mexican Standards or the continuous payment of taxes and duties;
• interrupting the activities of the permit for at least thirty continuous calendar days;
• failure to submit volumetric control and commercial operation information;
• falling under the tax assumptions of Articles 69 and 69-B of the Federal Tax Code;
• failure to prove the materiality of the address or preventing its verification.

Added to this is expiration: if the title does not set a term, the permit expires for failure to exercise the rights for three hundred and sixty-five calendar days, and permits issued by the Commission starting from the entry into force expire in one hundred and eighty calendar days if a formalized offer is not proven.

Adaptation periods for permittees

The transitory articles stagger compliance:

• 90 calendar days to implement the systems and procedures that allow access to the Electronic Filing Office;
• 180 calendar days to present the information proving the capacity to import, produce, formulate, or acquire the marketed products and the transport, storage, or distribution arrangements;
• 180 calendar days for the Commission to publish the contract template;
• 30 business days for the notice of cross-participation and to submit the pending information from the Twentieth transitory article of the Regulation.

The provisions enter into force the day after their publication, that is, November 6, 2026. Permits granted previously retain their validity under the terms granted, and pending applications shall be resolved according to the regulation in force at the time of their submission.

The impact is direct for the fuels market: the new regulation ties the permanence of the permit to the demonstration of actual activity, mandates the documentation of every link in the supply chain, and reinforces the traceability of natural gas, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, and petrochemicals to the final consumer. The immediate precedent is the publication of October 27, 2026, when the Commission reported the start of the expiration procedure against one hundred and thirty-two marketing permit holders.

Source: Official Gazette of the Federation, No. 303/2026, November 5, 2026, Ministry of Energy, p. 17 (official reference: Agreement CT/20.SO/40-2026).