Mexico’s Oil and Gas Legislative Reforms Are Beginning, Analysts Report

摘要

In what some North American analysts are calling “a monumental shift”, Mexico’s government, led by President Enrique Pen a, passed legislation in late December 2013 to open the country’s oil and gas markets to foreign investment. This has led to widespread enthusiasm about the prospects for new growth and participation in Mexico’s energy sector (See FR No. 2986, pp8-10). The 75-year-old oil and gas monopoly of Petro leos Mexicanos (Pemex) ended, as did the 53-year-old Comisio n Federal de Electricidad (CFE), which monopolized the country’s power generation and transmission lines. The reforms are only the beginning, however, as the “truly hard work looms ahead,” cautioned London-based consulting firm Control Risks (London-based firm) in a recent report, Mexico’s Second Revolution: Energy Reforms and Renewing National Infrastructure. Mexico has to face turning Pemex and CFE into market-driven entities in the next two years and creating a host of new, independent agencies that will be tasked to regulate the industries, and manage bidding, environmental quality, transport issues, and labor relations.