Pena Nieto Says Mexico Oil Overhaul Won't Include Pemex Sale Theophilos Argitis and Greg Quinn - Bloomberg News
go to original November 29, 2012

Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto said he wants some private investment in the country’s energy industry without the sale of state-run companies such as Petroleos Mexicanos.

“I have publicly talked about Mexico’s need to open ourselves up to the participation of the private sector in the energy sector, however this doesn’t mean privatizing state run companies,” Pena Nieto told reporters today in Ottawa, in translated remarks.

“I hope that this will happen with investments in Pemex but we can’t postpone the benefits that Mexicans deserve to get through energy development,” he said.

Pena Nieto said he will propose a law so “that without privatizing state run companies it would be possible to have greater participation of the private sector in the development of infrastructure in order to develop our energy potential in Mexico.”

In his first year as president, Pena Nieto will overhaul the energy industry either through constitutional changes or by loosening oil regulations, Ildefonso Guajardo, a top economic adviser for Pena Nieto said in an interview last month.

Pena Nieto, who rules out any kind of privatization for Pemex during his term, has said private or foreign companies will be crucial to accelerate the growth in Mexico’s energy industry.

The administration will pass an energy bill in Congress that will give Pemex greater financial freedom, Senator David Penchyna, head of the Mexican Senate’s energy committee, told El Universal newspaper. The changes will be discussed in the next legislative session, he said in the report published on Nov. 1.

To contact the reporter on this story: Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net

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