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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2008 
Mexico Govt Says Closing in on Energy Reform Deal
 Jason Lange - Reuters
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 |  | Mexico, a top three supplier of crude oil to the United States, saw oil exports slip last year to their lowest level since 2002 because of pounding storms and sagging output at the massive Cantarell oil field. |  | | | |
Mexico City - Mexico's government is closing in on a deal with opposition lawmakers to overhaul energy laws, the new interior minister said on Thursday.
"What we need to do is modernize the energy sector," Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino told Mexican television.
"The parties ... have said they are ready to enter the final phase of talks," Mourino told Mexican radio later.
Mexico, a top three supplier of crude oil to the United States, saw oil exports slip last year to their lowest level since 2002 because of pounding storms and sagging output at the massive Cantarell oil field.
Mourino did not mention details on the reform in the works, but the opposition says it will block any attempt to lift a constitutional ban on private investment in crude oil production. Lawmakers are discussing tweaks to give state oil company Pemex more operational and budgetary autonomy.
Some lawmakers and industry observers have speculated that reform measures could allow companies more presence in gas and oil distribution. Private partnerships in areas like deepwater or cross-border offshore oil fields also are being mulled.
Mourino said the ruling National Action Party and the key opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party were nearing a deal for some sort of reform.
President Felipe Calderon, whose conservative party lacks a majority in Congress, already has convinced lawmakers to pass two big economic reforms in the last year by making substantial concessions to the opposition.
In comments to Mexican television, Mourino said the government was working toward a compromise.
"There are many more things that we agree on than things that we disagree on," he said.
Calderon promoted Mourino, a close ally, to interior minister on Wednesday to help his government push economic reforms through Congress.
Mexico's slippling output has been blamed on a heavy tax load and decades of underinvestment.
(Editing by David Gregorio) |
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