Mexico Senate Approves 'Treasonous' Energy Bill Adam Williams and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez - Bloomberg News
go to original July 18, 2014

Mexico’s Senate approved additional legislation to help open the country’s energy industry to private companies for the first time in more than seven decades, a move decried as treasonous by opponents.

The Senate voted 91 to 27 today to approve a bill that sets a framework for oil and national gas contracts for companies entering the country such as Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. The landmark legislation opens the state-run crude monopoly held by Petroleos Mexicanos since 1938. Three other proposals that will open the electricity industry and set guidelines for state-owned companies will be discussed today and over the weekend. A final vote after all challenges to the four bills have been discussed may occur on July 21, Senator David Penchyna said.

The bills, which require approval from the lower house and President Enrique Pena Nieto, add contract specifications to an energy law approved last year and trumpeted by the government as the biggest economic overhaul since the North American Free-Trade Agreement. The energy law, which modified three constitutional amendments, will allow outside oil companies to help produce an estimated 113 billion barrels of untapped Mexican crude.

Read the rest at Bloomberg News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!