Mexico proposes private firms in oil industry

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed Monday lifting a decades-old ban on private companies investing in the state-run oil industry, a cornerstone of Mexico’s national pride that’s seen production plummet in recent decades.

The reform would allow profit-sharing contracts with private companies that have exploration know-how in deep water and other areas that the state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn’t have. Such contracts are prohibited by the constitution, which would have to be changed.

The leftist Democratic Revolution Party says it won’t support constitutional changes, but Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party and the conservative National Action Party have enough votes combined to secure the two-thirds majority needed.