By Juan Montes | The Wall Street Journal
President Enrique Peña Nieto will seek in the coming months to end a taboo of nearly eight decades by opening the state-run oil-and-gas industry to private investment and competition, a move the government hopes will attract billions of dollars in investment.
Mr. Peña Nieto’s government wants to allow private energy firms to share the risks involved in developing increasingly complex energy reserves such as deep-water oil deposits by letting them produce oil and gas through profit-sharing deals and joint ventures with state monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, according to three high-level government and ruling party officials who gave details of the proposed reform for the first time.
The proposal, which would involve amending several articles of Mexico’s Constitution, will need two-thirds support from Mexico’s Congress. But officials say they are optimistic they can get at least one of the two main opposition parties to back the plan without drastic changes. Formal negotiations will likely start after local elections on July 7, with a bill presented to Congress as early as August, the officials said.
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