According to some latest news, Shell Energy Resources Co. has started working at the world’s deepest offshore drilling and production facility in the Gulf of Mexico.

Moreover, the Perdido development sits in around 8,000 feet of water about 200 miles off the Texas coast.

In the meantime, the company, which is a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, said that it will make use of the facility to generate from three offshore fields that could need as many as 35 wells over the life of the fields.

Commission Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico's state-run power utility, has recently announced that it has secured $273 million from Japanese banks for the partial financing of a coal-fueled power plant and will issue $338 million in local bonds to complete the $611 million investment.

CFE, as the state power company is known, awarded the Carboelectrica del Pacifico project to Mitsubishi Corp. in 2005, with completion set for early this year.

According to recent reports, the country’s retail sales dropped in the month of January as compared to the same period last year, slowing the country’s recovery from recession as higher taxes and government-set prices forced consumers to shut their wallets.

As per the data revealed by the National Statistics Agency, retail sales slipped 1.8% in January 2010 as compared to the same period of time in 2009. Analysts had anticipated sales to climb 2.0 percent.

The President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, has recently announced about the upcoming tender for the Riviera Maya airport project, saying it would be the first in Mexico to be built completely with private funds.

Calderon, who didn’t release any information about the bidding procedure, said the approximate cost for the airport project would be close to 3.2 billion pesos ($255 million).

The President had made the statement in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, on one side of a large tourist zone that runs from Cancun to the site of Mayan ruins in Tulum.

Due to violence in Mexico, foreign tourists, mainly Americans,, and business figures declined around 95% in some regions of the country. This has happened for the second successive year in a row that tourism industry has been down in the country.

The blend of drug and gang related violence in the country, coupled with the recession in the United States, has tightened the grip on tourism, which is country’s third biggest source of profit.

In the year 2009, swine flu scare also hit the country’s international tourism numbers.

Royal Dutch Shell and Canadian oil explorer Nexen Inc has recently announced that they had made an important discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, the latest in a string of big finds in the Gulf in 2009.

According to the joint statement released by the companies, they had made the discovery at the Appomattox prospect in Mississippi Canyon blocks 391 and 392.

Further, it said that the discovery has increased the confidence level in other unexplored sites in the area.

According to some recent news released by the Grupo Mexico, its copper mining subsidiary Southern Copper Corp PCU. N had closed its copper smelter in San Luis Potosi at Mexico.

Moreover, the company has also said in a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission that all 300 employees at the smelter, which launched in 1925, were laid off and that the company hopes no material change because of the closure.

However, as per the release of the company’s website, “The smelter had an annual capacity of 230,000 tonnes per year.”

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has inaugurated the Group of Rio Summit in Playa del Carmen, resort town on the Caribbean coast. Presidents from most Latin American nations are attending the meeting.

And heads of state from the 15 member Caribbean Community are taking part for the first time in a Group of Rio Summit.

While talking to reporters, the president said, "The summit would look at forming a new expanded organization, to include all those present."

Also on the agenda will be how to offer shelter for the 1 million Haitians left homeless after the massive earthquake.

Mexican homebuilder Urbi (URBI. MX) has recorded a 6% fall in fourth quarter net profit to 600 million pesos (US$46 million) because sales dropped and as financial costs increased.

According to the statement issued by the Urbi in a stock market filing, its sales in the quarter were 4.306 billion pesos, a fall of 2% as compared to the same period a year ago.

The company said, "We sold 13,988 homes during the quarter, 13 percent more than in the same quarter in 2008 but at lower prices."

Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group has refused reports that it exploited employees at its Mexico plant.

In a press release, the group said that the riot last week was started due to some troublemakers.

According to the statement issued by the Foxconn, "News reports about Friday's disturbance at its Juarez Santa Teresa plant are misleading."

Further, it said, "To demonstrate our confidence in Mexico government and to honour our investment promise, Foxconn has increased employee number at our Juarez Santa Teresa campus to 7,000 within two years."