RODRIGO BECERRA MIZUNO, CORPORATE DIRECTOR AND CIO AT MEXICO’S LARGEST ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTOR, REVEALS HOW TECHNOLOGY IS PLAYING A CENTRAL ROLE IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OIL AND GAS COMPANY’S 2017-2021 BUSINESS PLAN
O
n 20 December 2013, Mexico’s oil and gas industry entered a new age. Having operated under a monopolised umbrella for 75 years, President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a momentous energy reform bill which opened up the country’s largest revenue-generating Technology to private competition. For national oil and gas giant Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), this signalled a huge about-turn, an overnight change of course not witnessed since its formation in 1938. A massive transformation was required, from a company operating as a monopoly to one that can stand up to competitors. Once charged with delivering hydrocarbon energy across the whole of Mexico at whatever the cost, Pemex is now focused on efficiency, profitability
10
and long-term survival. It was the enormity of this challenge which lured Corporate Director and CIO Rodrigo Becerra Mizuno away from a decade of servitude at Microsoft. “I thought this would be the biggest professional challenge of my career,” he recalls, “so when CEO at the time Jose Antonio González Anaya invited me, I was extremely excited. I knew technology would be at the forefront of this transformation. “On top of this, Pemex is the largest company in Mexico and one of the largest in the world.” The numbers back this up. As the eighth largest oil producer and drilling company in the world, Pemex’s $52bn revenue is equivalent to the entire GDP of Uruguay. It generates 2.5mn barrels of oil and 6mn cubic feet of natural gas a day,