Senate Committees to Start Debate on Revamped Energy Reform Reuters
go to original December 8, 2013

Reuters Update: Three Mexican Senate committees on Monday gave general approval to an energy bill that would open up oil production to private investment.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Senate committees begin debate on Sunday on an energy bill that would open up the world's 10th-biggest oil producer to private investment by allowing new types of contracts, marking the industry's most dramatic overhaul in 75 years.

The bill, announced by centrist ruling party and opposition conservative lawmakers on Saturday, would let private firms partner with ailing state oil firm Pemex via profit-sharing, risk-sharing and service contracts as well as licenses in a bid to boost sagging production.

The reform, which would keep ownership of crude in state hands, is at the center of an economic reform drive that President Enrique Pena Nieto hopes will boost long-lagging growth in Latin America's No. 2 economy.

It is much bolder than a draft proposed by Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in August, which would have offered profit-sharing contracts and was considered too tame for attracting private firms.

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