Latin America is both blessed and cursed; it contains an abundance of widely-disbursed oil and natural gas, but not universal agreement over how to explore and produce it. Some countries, like Mexico and Brazil, are looking to the future, while others are embracing policies that have led to stagnation in the past. Who wins - and who loses - may ultimately depend on choices that are made over the coming decade. Watching events unfold in Mexico is akin to suddenly seeing a glacier sprint. For 75 years, the country's oil and gas sector has ossified under constitutional restrictions that prohibit participation from international firms. Production, which stood at 3.4 million bpd in 2004, had shrunk to 2.48 million bpd by mid 2011 All that is about to change: under President Enrique Pena Nieto, federal reforms have been pushed through to allow far greater international participation. Although final details have yet to be worked out, the Ministry of Energy states that the monopoly by state-owned Pemex will come to an end. In its place, oil firms will be allowed to participate in exploration and production, as well as direct private investment in midstream and downstream sectors. The Ministry estimates that the reforms will add 1% to the GDP by 2018.
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