Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Keeping up to date on changes in Mexico

The changes to Mexico's petroleum industry have been underway for a long time. Here's the latest.

Mexico approves oil sector reforms

Mexico's Congress has approved sweeping changes to the country's energy industry which will see private oil contracts awarded in the country for the first time since 1938…

As a result, state-owned energy group Pemex will lose the monopoly it has held since nationalisation…

Crumbling infrastructure, bureaucracy and corruption have pared Mexican production from 3.6 million barrels a day in 2004 to just 2.5 million.

The ending of Pemex's monopoly required changes to the constitution, signed into law last year.

President Pena Nieto

The reforms are expected to attract billions of dollars of investment into the country, the world's ninth-largest oil producer.

They also authorise private production of electricity.

President Pena Nieto tweeted: "A more competitive and prosperous Mexico. They have laid the foundation for a new era of development and prosperity for Mexican families."…

The break-up of the oil industry is the climax of years of attempts to liberalise the Mexican economy that began in the early 1980s…