Pemex head says more investment crucial

A March 6 El Universal wire service story reported that Luis Ramírez Corzo, director general of Mexico’s state-owned oil monopoly Pemex, said that without new discoveries, Mexico, the world’s fifth largest oil producer, could be importing oil within a decade.

If Pemex is able to invest $10 billion per year, which is the level of the company’s investment now, Mexico can make enough discoveries to keep exporting.

But with an investment of $20 billion a year, Ramírez Corzo said Mexico could have world-class industry that exports oil, natural gas and petroleum derivatives.

To get to the $20 billion mark, Ramírez Corzo will have to achieve his goal of opening Mexico’s oil industry to alliances with foreign oil companies. And Pemex will have to allow the foreign companies to take a share of any reserves they find, which is prohibited by Mexico’s Constitution.

Although Ramírez Corzo faces steep opposition from the people of Mexico, he was a step closer to achieving his goal in early March when the Institutional Revolutionary Party voted to allow its lawmakers to support constitutional energy reforms. The decision reversed a decade-old rule that barred its lawmakers from voting in favor of private energy investment, Universal reported.