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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2008 
Mexico Starts TV Campaign to Support Oil Bill
 Andres R. Martinez - Bloomberg
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| | Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, left, and Panama's President Martin Torrijos attend a news conference in Panama City, Wednesday, March 5, 2008. (AP/Arnulfo Franco) | | |
Mexican President Felipe Calderon is using national television ads to overcome opposition to his plan to open the state oil monopoly to foreign investment, saying the nation needs outside help to get to crude in deep waters.
Forty-six percent of Mexicans polled by Reforma newspaper this week said they opposed Calderon's initiative, which the government says is the only way Mexico can halt a decline in oil output and reserves.
"Mexico has a great treasure, a treasure buried deep under the sea," a narrator says in the ad, which began to air last night. "We need to get to it."
Petroleos Mexicanos, the state oil company, lacks money and the technology to explore in waters deeper than 5,000 meters, where most Mexican deposits are, according to a government study.
"This could be their last big effort," said Daniel Lund, president of Mund Group, a consulting firm in Mexico City. "If the polls continue to show this historic resistance, then I don't know what they will do."
The televised ad says Mexico must learn from Brazil and the U.S., which began exploring in deep waters more than 15 years ago. "This will allow us to live better," the narrator says. "Fortunately, Mexico can take advantage of the technology and know-how that other countries have."
'Confusion'
Mexico has drilled five wells in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico that have yet to find any oil. Nearby on the U.S. side, Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it expects to produce about 130,000 barrels of oil a day from deep water wells in Perdido Foldbelt in the Gulf of Mexico starting in 2010.
The airing of the ad was poorly timed because Calderon hasn't yet presented details of his plan or a draft bill, Speaker of the House Ruth Zavaleta said.
"Creating advertisements about a topic that is so controversial without having something concrete leads to too much confusion for the public and polarizes people even more," she said today.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at amartinez28(at)bloomberg.net |
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