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 Editorials | Issues | April 2007 
Mexico Energy Minister Says No Oil Privatization
 BYLINE
Mexico City - Mexican Energy Minister Georgina Kessel said on Tuesday the country would not privatize its energy sector companies but urged lawmakers from all parties to start a new debate on how to shore-up declining oil output.
In her first presentation to the lower house of Congress Energy Commission since taking the job in December, Kessel said Mexico's main challenge was to reverse stagnating crude production and falling oil reserves.
She said 55 percent of Mexico's current oil production comes from fields that are in decline and Mexico's oil reserves as they stand will last just over nine years.
"Even though work on exploration and production has not stopped ... it will not be possible to sustain the production platform at the historical highs registered in previous years," she said.
Facing a sharp drop in output at its aging Cantarell field, Mexican state oil company Pemex is battling to try and maintain average national daily oil production at around 3 million barrels.
Pemex has begun exploring potentially huge deepwater oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico but acknowledges such projects would go much faster if the law were changed to allow joint ventures with private or foreign oil companies.
Kessel said she wanted an open dialogue between all political parties to try and reach an new energy policy.
"The energy sector companies will not be privatized," she said. "The aim is to strengthen them by providing the investment resources necessary for them to be modernized and to function well."
Pro-business President Felipe Calderon is keen to change Mexican law to allow more private investment in the sector, but he faces resistance from opposition politicians who fear creeping privatization. |
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