U.S. President Donald Trump has pressured Mexico to sign energy deals with U.S. companies, “triggering alarm in Mexico City,” according to the Financial Times (FT).
The British newspaper’s reporting is based on information it received from three people said to be familiar with a telephone conversation between Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in mid-September.
“Donald Trump has pressed Mexico to ink energy deals with U.S. companies as trade talks between Washington and its largest trading partner stall, triggering alarm in Mexico City where foreign investment in the sector is highly sensitive,” FT wrote in a report published last Friday.
“The U.S. president insisted in a call with his counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum last month that there should be more deals and tie-ups between Mexican and U.S. energy companies, according to three people familiar with the call.”
FT wrote that one of its sources said that Trump initially asked Sheinbaum about a deal to sell Mexican assets to the U.S. The completion of such a deal would be highly unlikely given that the Mexican government is seeking to strengthen energy sovereignty, rather than sell off assets.
Citing two of its sources, FT reported that Trump and Sheinbaum “also discussed a deal similar to the one signed last year with South Korea, in which Seoul agreed to buy [US] $100bn of U.S. energy products and invest billions more in the U.S.”
Citing a U.S. official, FT said the two leaders “discussed the prospect of Mexico increasing purchases of U.S. natural gas, on which it already depends for about three-quarters of its demand.”
“The official added that the talks were focused on reducing Mexico’s trade surplus with the U.S.,” the newspaper wrote.
That surplus increased more than 20% year over year in the first eight months of 2026, climbing to almost $156 billion. The size of Mexico’s surplus has drawn the ire of Trump, who argues that the U.S. has long gotten a raw deal on trade with countries around the world.
State control of energy meets US trade pressure
FT didn’t disclose anything about Sheinbaum’s response to Trump’s apparent push for energy deals and asset sales.
However, the newspaper did write that Sheinbaum’s party, Morena, “has put state control of energy at the heart of its agenda.”
Just last week, Energy Minister Luz Elena González told reporters that the government is targeting a 60% public share of electricity generation, above the 54% share mandated by law. The government, like its predecessor, has poured money into Pemex to strengthen the state oil company after what Sheinbaum and former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador describe as decades of neglect during Mexico’s so-called “neoliberal period.”
Under López Obrador, the Mexican government rolled back parts of a 2014 reform that opened up Mexico’s energy sector to foreign and private companies.
However, FT reported that “Sheinbaum is cautiously trying to restart pockets of private investment in the ailing [energy] sector as oil production hits record lows and cities have experienced blackouts due to strain on the electricity grid.”
“State companies Pemex and CFE, however, will remain dominant,” the newspaper added.
Trump’s reported pressure on the Mexican president came at a time when the United States and Mexico continued to engage in trade talks. On July 1, the U.S. government announced that it had declined to renew the USMCA trade pact in its “current form,” and since then it has been discussing a range of trade issues with Mexico.
While the USMCA remains in effect, and most Mexican exports enter the U.S. tariff-free, the Mexican government is seeking to have U.S. duties on steel, aluminum and vehicles reduced, if not eliminated.
FT’s reporting indicates that Trump could be conditioning tariff reductions on energy sector concessions from Mexico. Citing two of its sources, the newspaper said that the United States’ “new request on energy” contributed to a delay of a formal round of trade talks which were scheduled for September and which have not yet been rescheduled.
Earlier this year, the Office of the United States Trade Representative strongly criticized Mexico’s energy sector framework, raising a range of concerns that it says disadvantage U.S. energy companies.
US gas imports rise despite sovereignty push
Mexico’s imports of natural gas from the United States increased in the first seven months of 2026 to reach a record high of 6.8 billion cubic feet per day, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The year-over-year increase in the period was 1.8%.
Mexico’s natural gas imports from the U.S. have now increased in the January-July period of four consecutive years. In May, June and July, daily imports of U.S. natural gas — a key fuel for industry and electricity generation — averaged more than 7 billion cubic feet per day. The newspaper El Economista reported that it was the first time that imports exceeded that mark during three consecutive months.
Sheinbaum is determined to reduce Mexico’s reliance on imported natural gas and, to that end, has changed her stance on fracking, asserting that the controversial gas and oil extraction technique can now take place sustainably and safely.
However, her government has not yet authorized fracking projects in northern Mexico, where significant non-conventional gas and oil reserves are believed to be located, and even if it were to do so soon, it would likely be years before Mexico could meaningfully reduce its gas imports from the U.S.
Whether Mexico is prepared to further increase its purchases of U.S. natural gas — as Trump would apparently like to see happen — remains to be seen. While Sheinbaum is determined to strengthen Mexico’s energy sovereignty, the need for imported gas will ultimately depend on domestic demand and supply.
One potential supplier of additional natural gas to Mexico is the U.S. state of New Mexico. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham traveled to Mexico City last month, with the aim of advancing “potential trade deals in natural gas exports,” according to the governor’s office.
With reports from Financial Times and El Economista
