Posted on 11/16/2013 9:32:09 AM PST by JerseyanExile
Accused a generation ago of engineering the "perfect dictatorship," Mexico's ruling party is now close to agreeing on a plan that could weaken the presidency and strengthen Congress in order to win votes for a major energy reform.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its opposition rivals are shortly expected to unveil the blueprint for a reform aimed at giving Congress greater oversight of government and allowing lawmakers to serve consecutive terms.
Billed as a step forward for democracy, the electoral reform is a bargaining chip for President Enrique Pena Nieto's most ambitious plan - changing the constitution to allow more private capital into the state-controlled oil industry.
The energy bill is the central pivot of a broader drive for change from telecoms to education that Pena Nieto hopes will help boost Mexico's economic growth, which has long lagged that of other countries in the region.
Pena Nieto needs two-thirds of the votes in Congress to change the constitution. But the PRI does not even have a majority, making it dependent on help from an opposition keen to cut back the party's long-standing domination of Mexican politics.
Some of the votes needed for the oil reform are likely to come from the conservative National Action Party (PAN) - which has made them conditional on electoral reform passing first.
That is close to becoming reality.
"We've come almost 100 percent of the way," Jose Maria Martinez, PAN deputy leader in the Senate, told Reuters, adding that he expected a preliminary deal on electoral reform this week.
Senior politicians in the PRI, PAN and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) say they see eye-to-eye on most of the reform and PRI Senate leader Emilio Gamboa told local radio that a bill could be voted on next week.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
If Mexican politicians really cared about their country, they would develop their energy sector so extensively that illegals will be crossing the border from north to south.
Yeah, the success of our Congress at getting away with screwing the nation has set an attractive example for Mexico’s political criminals....a great example.
The bad news is they can “reform” the energy sector all they want and it won’t matter.
Their oil fields are pumped dry.
Well, let me rephrase that. Clearly not dry. Just far post Peak.
Mexican oil production is only declining because Pemex hasn’t invested in modern techniques or machines. Private investment by foreign firms could drastically boost output.
So this would be a good thing? And if PAN re-wins a Presidential (and Congressional) election it would be even better??
Wouldn’t electing “conservatives” in Mexico (with conservative-free market reform, rule of law, etc..) be good in that it would cause less illegal immigration from Mexico?
That’s english. Drastically.
Only mathematics matters in the world of oil.
Mexico crude production peaked in 2004 at 3.9 mbpd. They are down more than 1 million bpd from there to 2.6 mbpd.
They used the most modern of techniques to accelerate oil output and maximize it as soon as possible and they did permanent (there’s an english word for you . . . PERMANENT) damage to Canterell by ramming oil down deeper in depth, making it hotter and turning it into natural gas.
That’s not fixable. The “investment” word in the world of oil means “drilling frantically for smaller and smaller bubbles of porosity in the rock” until you’re drilling $10 million dollar wells to tap spherical volumes of tiny size.
Conservatives have to get their minds wrapped around the concept of IT IS POSSIBLE TO RUN SHORT. Not out. You will never run out. There will always be tinier and tinier spheres of porosity to tap. You can spend more and more effort to get less and less crude. That means you never run out, but you still die.
Production on old wells is declining, but Mexico has one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon production potentials. They have untouched shale oil deposits, and huge deep water oil deposits - neither of which PEMEX has the technology to put into production. It is a treasure trove of resources that is capable of driving their whole economy significantly upward - that is why the politicians are so serious about it and willing to make serious political concessions.
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