the issue in Mexico is oil,... and the privatisation of the national firm PEMEX

It seems that Mexicans are either pro or anti 'modernity' in terms of oil industry. The problem here is that it also seems that Mexican world is up side down,.. as those who recall for modernity are actually looking forward to go back to the situation the country had before 1938 when president Lazaro Cardenas nationalised the oil industry.

The problem as I see it is rather simpler than that, it is about paying back a favour.

The favour, a small one, was to provide some help, financial and tactical to ensure winning the presidency,.. even by ripping the election. Now Calderon and his allies have to pay back by honouring promises they made to the money people, by privatising the oil national company the which occupies the third place in terms of profitability.

The argument they are using is
'that Mexican oil is coming to an end,
but that there is a huge reserve,... -a treasure-
deep into the gulf of Mexico,
and that Mexicans do not have technology to exploit it,...
HENCE,...
there is no other option but to sell off PEMEX',....

WOW,... what about renting the technology out,..???
exxon, halliburton and shell the firms that would be benefited from this don't actually have the technology either,

then how is it the Calderon government is in that hurry to 'sell' them Mexican oil???

fortunately for Mexicans, there is a huge movement opposing this,..

here are two reports on that,...


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Mexico Party Drafts Proposal to Open Border Oil Wells (Update1)
By Adriana Lopez Caraveo and Jens Erik Gould

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon's party has drafted a bill that would allow state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos to jointly develop wells that straddle the U.S. border with private and foreign companies.


Alonso Manuel Lizaola de la Torre, a member of Calderon's National Action Party in the lower house of Congress, said he had planned to present the initiative yesterday. Hector Larios, his party leader in the lower house, asked him to postpone it.


``To be able to realize contracts and agreements for the joint development of border fields is extremely important for Mexico,'' the proposal says, according to a copy provided to Bloomberg News by Lizaola de la Torre.

The draft is part of a broader plan to loosen the state's monopoly on oil, which the government says is the only way Mexico can halt declines in output and reserves. Calderon wants to allow outside investment in deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as refining and transportation, lawmaker David Maldonado Gonzalez said yesterday.


Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, generates about 40 percent of federal revenue. Crude output may drop by a third by 2016 unless it gains access to technology that would allow it to drill deepwater wells through partnerships with other companies, the government has said.

Oil Protests

Calderon's party postponed presenting the initiative yesterday because of recent protests by those opposed to the reform, including a rally in Mexico City's main square yesterday by former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Lizaola de la Torre said.

Lopez Obrador and members of his Party of the Democratic Revolution have promised to hold protests at congressional buildings, airports and financial institutions to protest reformation of the energy industry.

Mexico's constitution reserves oil to the government, banning any outside investment in exploration or production. The country nationalized most aspects of the oil industry in 1938. Calderon is hoping to change secondary laws to allow private and foreign companies to team up with Pemex, which would retain ownership of the drilling projects.

Lawmakers from Calderon's party intend to present the border well bill along with a larger energy initiative that the government plans to propose, Lizaola de la Torre said.


Calderon's government will present an energy bill in 10 to 15 days, Larios said March 24.


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and this one,.. from reuters

By Jason Lange

MEXICO CITY, March 26 (Reuters) - Mexico's ruling conservatives are fine-tuning an energy bill with opposition parties but the reform could disappoint investors by keeping profit-sharing contracts illegal, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, which lacks a majority in Congress, has been trying to convince the opposition in recent weeks to revamp energy laws to boost the sagging state-controlled oil industry.

But the PAN is giving up on a core part of its vision for turning around the sector: attracting foreign partners to technologically challenging but potentially huge deepwater oil fields by offering them a share in profits.

"Risk contracts are not in the equation," said PAN lawmaker Juan Bueno, who sits on the Senate energy committee.

Under Mexico's constitution, state monopoly Pemex has sole rights to explore for and produce Mexican oil, and left-wingers bitterly oppose allowing contracts that would have Pemex share risks and profits with outside companies.

Bueno said the PAN was considering a less-extreme proposal that would let Pemex form partnerships with other state-owned energy firms. "That is something we are studying," he said.
He did not say what form such partnerships could take.

Pemex announced another fall in total oil reserves on Wednesday, showing that its fledgling deepwater drilling projects have so far not been able to confirm what seismic tests suggest could be some 30 billion barrels of oil under the Gulf of Mexico seabed in water several kilometers deep.

Neither private nor state-run oil companies are expected to sign up for risky deepwater oil projects without contracts that would give them a share in profits.

Cabinet members and PAN lawmakers are meeting opposition legislators all this week to try and reach a consensus on a proposal that could be unveiled within two weeks.

PAN lawmakers said the proposal could also call for reducing state oil company Pemex's heavy tax load and giving the company more freedom to make business decisions.

Mexico is a top supplier of crude to the United States, but decades of underinvestment have left oil reserves and output waning and left Mexico importing 40 percent of its gasoline.

Bueno said the PAN proposal might also include opening up fuel storage and transport to more private investment.

Lawmakers for the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, another key opposition bloc, plan to meet Calderon's energy minister next week to discuss the proposal, the party's leader in the lower house told reporters.

PAN lawmakers said the government wanted to seal a deal with the opposition before presenting its bill.

"That's where we're at. It wouldn't make sense to present a bill that was destined for failure," said Alonso Lizaola, a PAN lawmaker and secretary on the lower house energy committee. (Additional reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Catherine Bremer; Editing by Christian Wiessner)