Mexican Lawmakers Approve Key Plank Of Energy Reform With Tweaks

MEXICO CITY, July 29 (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Mexico's lower house approved on Tuesday a key package of bills needed to implement a landmark energy overhaul, but made minor changes that will now need to be approved by the Senate.
The bills, including a crucial new hydrocarbons law, form the backbone of a reform to open the long-shuttered oil sector to private and foreign investment via a potentially lucrative new contacting scheme aimed at luring oil majors like Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil.
The constitutional overhaul passed late last year ended the 75-year monopoly enjoyed by state-owned oil company Pemex, which has struggled to stem declining crude production for a decade.
Late on Monday, lawmakers from the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of President Enrique Pena Nieto and the center-right National Action Party (PAN) voted overwhelmingly to give the package general approval.
Lawmakers debated through the night and voted hours later to approve the particulars of the bills, but made changes to ensure Mexico's rural landowner groups, or ejidos, are guaranteed compensation when extraction takes place on their lands.
Many ejidos have taken to the streets of Mexico City in recent days, fearing the energy reform will lead to widespread expropriations.
The modified bills now head to the Senate, which approved the drafts last week, for ratification.
Final approval of the secondary legislation is expected by early August.
The package of bills approved on Tuesday, part of nearly 30 separate pieces of legislation needed to implement the reform, also include laws that cover foreign investment, mining and public-private partnerships.
(Writing by David Alire Garcia and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Simon Gardner and Chris Reese)
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- Weatherford CEO's Rebound Plan Relies On Getting Smaller
- Iran Says Oil Market Is Too Tight For US Zero Exports Target
- China's Squeezed 'Teapots' Eye Petchem Path To Riches
- Baker Hughes: US Drillers Add Oil Rigs For Second Week In Three
- Venezuela Hands China More Oil Presence, But No Mention Of New Funds
- 12 Missing in Gulf of Mexico Lift Vessel Incident
- West African Oil Slow to Sell
- McDermott Nets LNG Storage Deal
- GOM Vessel Incident Declared Major Marine Casualty
- Shell Urges Shareholders to Reject Activist Climate Plan
- Driving Tops 2019 Levels on USA Highways
- Woodside CEO Retiring in June
- Shell and Harbour Team Up for UK Project
- Oil May Slide to $10 Under This WoodMac Scenario
- Pemex 'Indirect Expropriation' Bill Clears Hurdle
- Lift Vessel Capsizes in Gulf of Mexico
- 12 Missing in Gulf of Mexico Lift Vessel Incident
- Weatherford and Safe Influx in Industry First
- Chevron Joins Offshore Wind Bandwagon
- Archer Bags ConocoPhillips NCS Deal
- Yemeni Houthis Claim Aramco Drone Attack
- TOT Starts Making Sustainable Aviation Fuel in France
- Eni Bolsters Vietnam Presence
- Future of Brent Platform's Giant Legs Uncertain
- West African Oil Slow to Sell
- Biden Plan Gives Oil Sector Surprise Boost
- California Driller Reaped Gains from Texas Freeze
- Are Foreign Oil Firms About to Return to Venezuela?
- Texan LNG Project Axed
- Oil Giants Win Climate Suit
- Largest UK Listed Independent Oil Co Born
- Biden Plan Gets Mixed Review from Oil Groups
- Hess Sells Bakken Stakes
- Texas Utility Sues Suppliers
- Fossil Fuel Sector Talks About ESG Like Never Before