Enrique Pena Nieto, the President of Mexico, has announced that he is trying to gather support for a proposal to end state-owned Pemex's monopoly of oil and gas exploration and production in order to boost economic growth.
Seventy years after oil fields were seized by the government in order to give Pemex (Petroleos Mexicanos) a monopoly on the industry, Pena Nieto wants the return of foreign energy companies to the country in an attempt to reverse an eight year decline in crude oil production. Whilst he has not yet given any of the details away, the basic idea is for Pemex to develop some fields, whilst foreign companies will be invited to develop others.
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During an interview in London, Pena Nieto said that "it's obvious that Pemex doesn't have the financial capacity to be in every single front of energy generation. Shale is one of the areas where there's room for private companies, but not the only one."
The energy bill will be ready to be presented before congress by September, and the president is confident that the Pact for Mexico, an alliance he created between his Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), and the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) will gain approval for the bill before the end of the year.
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More